


Deflowering Daisy

by Shadowfire_RavenPheonix



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, Aggressive Drunks, Alley Brawl, And A Good Laugh, Awkwardness, Body Hair, Chest Hair, Cunnilingus, Discussion of Cherry-pickin', Dwarf/Elf Relationship(s), Elf Ear Play, Embarrassment, Emptiness, Epic Sex Scene, F/M, First Kiss, First Time, Foreplay, Grey Warden Stamina, Implied Female Masturbation, Left out, Loneliness, Looting -Damnit! If you've knocked them out – you take their stuff everyone knows this!, Loss of Virginity, Magic cum... Sorta, Maiden's Eve, Masturbation (if we can call it that), Merrill Babble, Mostly Dressed Sex, Multi-Chapter Sex Scene, Multiple Orgasms, Multiple Sex Positions, Nipple Play, Not-so-blushing-virgin, Now I Have Cavities, Oh God The Romance, Oral Sex, Overprotective Dwarves, Pet Names, Propositions, Public Sex, Rogues With Big Sister Complexs, Romance, Shameless Smut, Smut, Stripping (sorta), Third Wheel, Tit Play, Vaginal Fingering, Valentines, Virgin Kink, Virginity, Voyeurism, Why Did This Turn Out So Sappy?, Woman on Top, aching, blowjob, evesdropping, romantic picnic, ticklish, vocal sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-12
Updated: 2015-04-02
Packaged: 2018-03-12 00:56:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 32,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3338174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowfire_RavenPheonix/pseuds/Shadowfire_RavenPheonix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Maiden's Eve and a virginal Merrill is all alone. Aveline has Donnic, Hawke has Anders and now Isabela has taken up with Fenris. So what's an elf to do, left all alone with nothing but her aching maidenhead for company? Why, lose it of course!</p><p>Have an little Valentines flavored humour and smut on me!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Flustered Flower

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MRTL85](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MRTL85/gifts).



> Dedication: For MRTL85,  
> Because she'd never even considered this pair until I told her I was writing it. And then couldn't Not imagine them hooking up when she next played the game. This is for you Babe! I hope I did it all the justice it deserved, and that it is all the funny and sexy you were hoping for.  
> ____________________________________________________________________  
> *Opening A/N:* Okay so, firstly, if you didn't already know, I have a HUGE virgin-kink (like Oh My Gawd- You have NO Idea) and thus I've been dying to write me some tasty cherry pickin' action ever since I first toyed with the idea of writing fics. Secondly, if you somehow missed this too, I have an equally HUGE lady-boner for Varric and I've been deeply disappointed with the lack of quality, in-character, Varric smut available to me. So this is really nothing more than an entirely self indulgent fic, where I combine two of my great loves... (Next time I'll make it a slash pair and it'll really be nothing but the publication of my own personal wet dream). Now before anyone comes to bite my head off; yes, I am aware that Daisy isn't a virgin in cannon; but she's the closest thing to one in this particular cast of jaded and (let's be honest) /damaged/, LIs. And, finally, a note on Maiden's Eve: essentially it's Valentines in Thedas, cause I wanted a romantic holiday to push our little flower over the edge, This is of my own invention, and it is cannon only in my head.
> 
> *A Warning*: THIS MAY STING. I have it on the highest of authority regarding the matter that despite my having been Cherry-free for a dozen years, I none-the-less write a very convincing and realistic portrayal of the aching lonely virgin. If you are a virgin there are a few moments in this that may -possibly- hit a little close to home and may also -possibly- see you feeling a little upset or depressed. I promise this too will pass and there are plenty of sexy fun times as well as a fairly solid dose of humor to be had in this, and it's follow up chapter. But I promised I would warn you all 'cause... yeah, I made her cry.
> 
> *Disclaimer:* BioWare, this is all you fault. I spend an inordinate amount of time and energy writing this stuff because you do things like make AMAZING characters like Varric and then REFUSE TO LET ME ROMANCE HIM!!! So, yeah, I make nothing from this, but at least I can dream of that which you /deny/ me.
> 
> Lastly My deepest gratitude to My Three Beautiful Betas Enchant, MRTL85 & Tuon, and also a GREAT BIG SHOUT OUT to the wonderful ladies of the DA Writers & Reviewers Group - you lot are the best cheerleaders any writer could wish for.

 

Merrill stood outside The Rose, wringing her hands nervously.

“You're being silly, Merrill.” She chided herself, as she once again failed to take that step into the courtyard in front of the infamous brothel. “You've been in there a dozen times with Hawke. This is no different. You just walk in there and... and...” and what exactly? What exactly did one do to engage the services of one of the, er, uh... entertainers-?- in such a place. Oh this was the silliest notion she'd ever had, and she'd had some pretty silly ones.

“By the Dread Wolf, why is this so difficult? It's not as if I'm doing anything wrong! I just want to know what all the fuss is about, is all. It's not fair everybody else having lovers and me being all cold and alone. I have just as much right as any of them to a bit of fun on Maiden's Eve.”

It had all started three nights before...

 

 **.:xo-DFD-ox:**.

 

They had all been gathered in Varric's rooms at The Hanged Man for their usual card game, when the dwarf had casually posed the question of them taking on a job over the next few nights. Nothing especially hard. Just a 'watch and wait' for some people due to arrive down at the docks. Supposedly, Varric had someone who was willing to pay to see that _these_ people decided to leave town right promptly upon arriving. Only problem was the information Varric had managed to gleam of just exactly _when_ they were due to arrive was 'sketchy'. The best he could tell them was that the ship was due to arrive either on, or after, Saturday night.

“Uh, Varric?” Hawke had said in that too innocent tone of hers -Merrill heard it a lot- that she only ever used on them when someone had missed something exceedingly obvious “You are aware that Saturday night is Maiden’s Eve, right?”

“Yeah, but I don't see what that has to do with...” Varric had trailed off as he looked around the table and saw the way everyone, expect for himself and Merrill, had shuffled nearer one-another. Even Fenris had let Isabela drape herself across his chest. “Well, shit.”

“Exactly.” Hawke had said with a smile at Anders who offered a knowing little smirk back.

“So _all_ of you have plans? What about you, Aveline? From what I hear these guys aren't the kind of people any of us want running around town.” The dwarf had cajoled, flashing his brightest, most winning, smile at the big red-headed warrior.

“Donnic has informed me he went to some considerable lengths in his plans for our evening this year.” The Guard-Captain said calmly, as her husband turned to grace her with one of his sweetest smiles. “I'm hardly going to dismiss his efforts over a 'possibly-maybe', Varric.”

“I'd be right upset if she did! I've got it all planned out. Candle lit dinner, wine on the balcony, a hot oil massage-”

“Alright! Alright! No need to go getting graphic.” Varric laughed, as Donnic's face lit up at the sight of the soft blush creeping over Aveline's cheeks. “Forgive me if our fair Captain of the guard isn't exactly the woman I want to be picturing naked and covered in oil when I go to sleep tonight. Don't particularly imagine you'd appreciate that much either.” Varric said, giving the couple a cheeky grin.

“And just who _do_ you picture naked and glistening in bed, Varric, hmmm?” Isabela inquired leaning forward so that her full breasts actually rested on the table, making all of the men's eyes pop a little wider. Merrill had even caught Fenris shifting to get a better view, as she sighed with envy. She used to consider herself rather well-endowed and she guessed that it still held true when she compared herself to other elves, but spending all of her time in the company of Isabela and Hawke... well, it did nothing for a girl's self-esteem.

“I'd have thought that would be obvious, Rivaini.” The dwarf replied with a laugh. “Bianca, of course.”

“I do hope you mean her namesake and not the actual crossbow.” Fenris said, turning his eyes back to his hand of cards. “It is disturbing enough watching you fondling it after a fight. I do not wish to picture you in bed with it as well.”

Everyone had laughed at that.

Merrill had laughed too... But her laughter had been, maybe, a little bit, well, _forced_.

The fast approaching romantic holiday, when lovers would give each other presents and spend the evening with each other, hadn't concerned her overly much throughout the years. She hadn't even heard of it until she moved into the Alienage. It was rather more a shemlen holiday. Though the elves in the Alienage who were lovers all seemed to enjoy the excuse to spoil each other just fine, shemlen custom or no. After that first year, Merrill had usually just shrugged it off as just another day. Although, she did look forward to the surfeit of cheap sweets that became available at every market stall the week prior.

But this year was different. This year Isabela had taken up with Fenris and Merrill was suddenly feeling rather... left out.

She'd hardly noticed the difference when Aveline had taken up with Donnic. Aveline and herself never seemed to understand each other, so her absence from the gathering of Hawke's friends hadn't really been noted much by the little Dalish elf. She felt it a bit more when, a year later, Anders and Hawke had started being more than just friendly with one another. Again, the loss of Anders and his condescension at their little gathering hadn't really perturbed Merrill much; but Hawke was one of her closest friends, and the elf had felt the lack of _her_ presence much more keenly.

Still, things had been fine. She had still had Isabela and Varric. And Fenris; though, Merrill was beginning to suspect the other elf didn't like her very much.

Then Fenris and Isabela had started 'knocking boots' as Isabela had put it – though Merrill thought it was a rather silly statement. Fenris never wore boots, so how exactly was he supposed to knock them against Isabela's? Mind, Isabela did wear very _big_ boots... Maybe that was why she said it that way. Maybe something the warrior did made her boots knock against one another? Was that it? - Anyway. The point was, that Isabela and Fenris had started having sex and suddenly Merrill found herself very alone, and feeling, well, rather _abandoned_.

That wasn't to say that Varric wasn't good company: on the contrary, in fact! He was always fun to be around, and he did have the most _delightful_ stories. But when the others weren't in attendance he tended to invite other patrons over to his card table, and they oft-times made Merrill feel very shy and uncomfortable. And they always asked Varric for the more...well, _dirty_ of his stories; which left Merrill feeling _very_ left out as she didn't understand the half of them.

Her lack of understanding of the dirty and raunchy topics had also started to rub her a little raw as the upcoming feast day drew nearer. With everyone but herself and the dwarf paired off, there wasn't a single time Merrill had been with the company where the conversation hadn't taken a turn for the dirty and left her, once again, sitting on the fringes; alone in a crowd.

A quiet sense of melancholy had settled over her after that, but none of the others had seemed to notice. Not that she had wanted them to! She hadn’t wanted to ruin the mood or anything, and it _was_ nice to see everyone so happy. She'd even caught Fenris sporting a smirk or two over the past couple of days.

She just... Well, she just wished _she_ had what they had. She wanted to understand their dirty jokes; laugh with them when they laughed because she _got_ it. To understand the reason why they did the strange things they did when they thought no one was looking.

It had still only been a small thing. A tiny desire that she hadn't even had the courage to voice to herself at first... then, she’d gone out with Hawke and Anders earlier in the day.

What she had unintentionally witnessed had transformed what had been a quiet little yearning into a _need_ to know more; a burning curiosity that had refused to let her return to her previous ignorant contentment.

 

 **.:xo-DFD-ox:**.

 

The excursion to the Wounded Coast had started out much like any other trip with Hawke outside the city. Hawke had knocked on her door and asked her if she'd like to go for a trip outside the walls to gather herbs. Well she was _always_ ready to get out of Kirkwall proper, so she had quite eagerly accepted... much to Anders' apparent disappointment. It had taken her most of the morning trek before she'd caught on to why the man had been so particularity sour about it.

Turned out, the trip to the coast had been Anders' suggestion and the herb gathering had merely been his excuse to get Hawke out of the city. When he'd produced the small picnic basket that had clearly been packed with a romantic lunch for _two_ in mind, it had become all too plain to Merrill that she was a very unwanted third-wheel on this trip. She couldn't help but feel a surge of affection for Hawke that she had compromised her alone time just because she knew how much Merrill enjoyed getting out of Kirkwall sometimes, and she had done her best to give the couple as much privacy as possible.

After wolfing down her own meager lunch, she had told them that she thought she knew of a good spot for elfroot just a short distance away and that she'd be there for the next little bit while they finished eating. They should just call if they needed her. She'd wandered off in the direction she'd indicated, not terribly hopeful of actually finding much, but more than willing to just wander the woods at the base of the mountain and gather what she could, so that her friend could have a moment with her lover.

Then she had found the patch of Embrium. It was one of the flowers Anders was forever complaining about a shortage of, which wasn't surprising; it was rare to encounter more than a single stem baring only a blossom or two in any given location. But what Merrill had found had been a positive treasure trove of the bright red blooms. Literally, an entire little gully just full of the pretty scarlet flowers. She had happily set about harvesting the fleshy red petals until only a few remained so that the gully might reseed.

Her little herb pouch had been full to bursting and she'd been positively bouncing with happiness; sure that such a bounty, along with the location of where he might harvest it again in the future, would make it up to Anders for her intruding on his date with Hawke. In her excitement, she had gone rushing back to where she had left the healer and his partner, entirely forgetting the reason _why_ she had left them alone in the first place.

She had very nearly reached the edge of the little meadow they had set their picnic in, when a sound pulled her up short.

A low moaning; one that that sounded nothing like any type of moaning Merrill had ever heard before. No, she would have been quite willing to swear that the sound she'd just heard had no relationship what-so-ever to the pained moaning of the sick and injured. Too late, she remembered that she had gone off to give Hawke and Anders privacy. Obviously they had taken her at her word and had become more intimate than she had intended in her absence. She probably should have turned back then; gone back to the path and simply waited them out... but then-

“Maker, yes!” Though his hissed words were quiet, Anders' voice had carried exceptionally well, in the still of the late afternoon. “Just like that, Marian. Please don't stop doing that-oh~” the last 'oh' turned into a breathless sort of whine which had made Merrill's stomach do odd things upon hearing it. Anders hadn't sounded at all like himself, and despite knowing it was no doubt very rude, Merrill had found herself unable to turn away. In fact, she had carefully crept forward until she could see the clearing and its two occupants.

Again, her stomach did that odd little drop and roll as she caught sight of the two humans. They were still sitting on the blanket Hawke had spread over the ground earlier, but Anders had shifted so that he was sitting with his back up against the tree they had taken shade from. He sat with his head thrown back against the trunk, his long throat working as he continued to mutter and moan to Hawke; pleading with her to continue with... well, whatever it was she was doing.

At first, Merrill, hadn't been able to actually _see_ what it was Hawke had been doing to make Anders moan like that. She had come upon the clearing so that she was to the right of the two humans and whatever it was Hawke was doing between Anders' legs, Merrill's view of it had been blocked by the mage's drawn up knees. All she could see of her friend was her legs stretched out, belly down, on the blanket and one hand which was curled around the underside of the man's thigh; her fingers kneading at the fabric of his breeches.

Then Anders had jerked and his leg had fallen to the side affording the little elf a _full_ view of the rogue's doings.

Merrill's eye got perfectly round at the sight of her friend's pretty mouth stretched wide, her cheeks hollowed, and her eyes closed in concentration, as she drew Anders manhood deep into her throat and then slowly withdrew again. Anders had his hands tangled in the rogue's shoulder-length hair, which she had set free from its usual twisted knot-bun, and appeared to be guiding her movements; helping her keep the rhythm he seemed to be enjoying so much. Once more, Hawke's head descended along the shaft of Anders' rod, until her nose disappeared in the nest of fabric made by the loose material of the other human's shirt tails and untied breeches. This seemed to have been the trick that had seen Anders convulsing, so that his knees dropped earlier, and Merrill heard him bite out a curse this time, as the same sort of shudder ran through him; his fingers tightening their grip until he was holding his lover's hair with white-knuckled fists.

Merrill's stomach had done another one of those strange, almost pleasant, little flops at the sight, only this time it seemed to trigger an ache between her legs as well. She had felt the need to squirm; to attempt to alleviate the feeling, as she had unconsciously drawn her lower lip between her teeth. She had _known_ she shouldn't be watching them; this was something private between two people who were very close, not meant for the eyes and ears of outsiders, and yet...

“Yes~” Again the word had come out in a long drawn out hiss between the man's clenched teeth and then he was gasping his eyes open yet unfocused; staring up at the pale spring sky with this odd lost sort of expression that had made Merrill’s heart thunder, and redoubled her need to squirm. She really should have left at that point but how was she supposed to do that when he kept making those faces? Saying those things in that odd breathy voice? And making her stomach churn and roll in such and alarming, yet desirable, way?

As Merrill's eyes remained glued to the sight of the two lovers, Anders had begun to pant; his chest rising and falling rapidly as Hawke's movements, too, gained speed. And then, in a rush, he pulled up from his reclined position, dragging up his knees, once more hiding Hawke form Merrill's view, as he curled about his lover almost protectively. “That's it! Fuck! Marian I'm cumi-nngh!” And then this odd sort of shivering tremor, the maturation of his earlier little shuddering, seemed to wrack the healer's body. Merrill had felt the bottom drop out of her stomach, as wetness flooded her small clothes. Her own body shivering in the ghost of her own orgasm.

Merrill had sunk down into a full crouch as she tried to come to grips with the fact that she had just had an orgasm without once laying and finger on herself. As she came down form the oddly intense, yet markedly unsatisfying, climax; she also then had to cope with the delayed onset of embarrassment and guilt she was suddenly feeling at having spied upon her friends. For a while she had just crouched there, fanning her burning cheeks, not paying much attention to the goings on in the clearing. She was too, however, close and her hearing too sharp to completely tune them out when they began speaking.

“Not that I'm complaining, love,” Anders had begun, breaking the silence, “but today really was supposed to be about you, and that seemed to be rather _more_ about me.”

“Consider it my apology for insisting on bringing Merrill out with us. Clearly, my head just wasn't on right this morning; in hindsight, you closing down the clinic and insisting we go flower picking _today_ really was rather... obvious.”  Realizing there was a real likelihood they'd been about to start talking about her, Merrill, had finally found the motivation she needed to start moving. Silently as she could manage, she'd gotten to her feet and turned to start making her way back along the way she had come.

“I certainly thought so.” Anders chuckled, “But you had your stubborn face on. Oh well, I knew it was a risk trying to surprise you anyway. Still _your_ guilt may be assuaged, but now _I'm_ feeling guilty-” Merrill had only taken a few steps, making a strong effort to remain unheard so she was still far too close, and when she heard what Anders said next she froze in her tracks. “Would you like me to return the favor, perhaps?”

“Oh as lovely as that would be, I'm afraid I'd feel rather exposed letting you use that talented tongue on me out in the open like this.” Merrill let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and took another cautious step. “Besides, My Lovely Warden, I think we can do better than that, don't you? After all, it would be a shame to let this go to waste now wouldn't it?” Merrill, it seemed, hadn't been able to help herself and she'd glanced back to see Hawke reach down between the mage's legs again, making the human smirk.

“Grey Warden stamina does have its uses, I suppose.” He chuckled, letting his legs fall flat to the ground once more, Affording Merrill a view of his still erect and slick manhood, as Hawke had casually begun stroking him anew.

“Mmmmm. That it certainly does.” Hawke purred as she positioned herself kneeling high on her knees straddling the mage's now outstretched legs, both her arms coming to rest wrapped around his neck. “Now, I have my own Maiden's Eve surprise for you.”

“Oh?” Anders said, arching a brow in inquiry, a genuine smile blossoming on his lips as he rested his hands upon the rogue's slender waist. “And what would that be, love?” Then Hawke had leaned down to whisper directly in to his ear just as the wind shifted and brought the woman's words right to Merrill's sensitive ears regardless.

“I'm not wearing any small clothes.” And Hawke's hips had crashed down on the mage's lap and Anders he cried out; not one of the quieter expletives of their earlier actions – this had been a cry that had startled the birds from the nearby trees. And it was soon joined by Hawke's own cries of pleasure.

Merrill had stood transfixed once more, her body turned away from the clearing, even as her ivy gaze had remained riveted on the couple as they made love in the middle of the field. This had been, if anything, worse than before. Less explicit, for sure, considering the pair's state of full dress. In fact it could have easily appeared as nothing more than a woman sitting upon a man's lap – something Merrill saw at the Hanged Man all the time – if it weren't for the heady sounding cries of their love-making, that was. With the addition of those open, wild, and unrestrained utterances, the nature of their actions had clearly become more intimate – more _revealing_. The two humans had no longer been holding anything back as they came undone for each other, and the sight of such _nakedness_ had left Merrill panting with a want all her own in her little hidden thicket.

After the initial shock of Hawke's mounting, Anders seemed to get a hold of himself some; his moans returning to their former, softer, groaning as he'd thrown his head back to watch Hawke as she rode him, seeking out her pleasure with strong lazy stirring movements of her hips. As Anders had grown quieter, however, Hawke's voice had grown louder, and if the man's earlier vocalization had seen Merrill's stomach roiling, these new song-like cries that Hawke had made had seen it positively dancing. As Merrill had watched, the rogue had picked up her pace until it was nearly a frenzied desperate sort of bucking; before, with a final loud sobbing scream of pleasure, she'd grown still, her back arching, her face flushed red, and her eyes rolling back. Again the sight of one of her companions achieving her climax seemed to have drawn out that sympathetic ghost of a climax within the little elf, and once more Merrill had felt that sudden swell of heat and wetness at the juncture of her legs even as it left her wanting.

“You’re so beautiful when you cum, love.” She heard Anders say, pant rather, his voice rough and strained, as he braced his feet and began to grind his hips up against Hawke until she was mewling with pleasure once more. “Show me again.” Hawke had capitulated leaning down to kiss her lover even as she had begun to roll her hips atop him once more.

This finally proved the spur to action Merrill had needed. The idea of watching _that_ happen again, simply too much for her poor over wrought nerves; and she had turned and fled through the undergrowth, not caring if they heard her.

 

 **.:xo-DFD-ox:**.

 

The walk back from the coast had been an agony. Not only had she been painfully embarrassed, but the arousal the pair of humans had managed to stir in her had simply refused to be quashed. Fortunately, Hawke and Anders had been too caught up in each other to notice Merrill's odd blushes and the hurried nature of her stride. They made it back to the city in record time and Merrill's farewell to them at the city gates had been so abrupt as to border on the verge of rude, Hawke had just waved her off her arm snaking around Anders' waist as she had begun steering him toward her Hightown home. Merrill suspected that pair of human's had been just as eager to return to their previous activities in private as she was to be away from them and seeing to herself; otherwise her odd eagerness to be away from them would normally have garnered her at least a concerned look from her friend.

Upon attaining the privacy of her little home in the alienage, Merrill had rushed in to her bedchamber, shedding her robes as she went; desperate to take care of the throbbing ache that had seemed to have made a permanent home for itself between her legs.

Problem was, for the first time in her life, Merrill couldn't seem to do the job right.

She didn't masturbate frequently, only when she was particularity frustrated by a problem and struggling to sleep really, but she had gotten fairly proficient at if over the years. However, that night, even though she had managed to bring herself over the edge twice and her limbs had felt lethargic and heavy in the aftermath, it hadn't seemed to _satisfy_ her. She was still left with that new ghostly ache in her core, and while she had taken care of the immediate need to squirm as she sat drinking her tea, she found herself feeling almost like she'd left the task uncompleted.

“Oh this is just silly!” She snapped after catching herself rereading the same passage of her book for the fourth time and seriously considering returning to her bed to try again. At this rate she was liable to end up raw and sore come morning and likely _still_ be feeling unsatisfied, based on how the evening had progressed thus far. With a frustrated little sound, she'd snapped the old tome shut a little aggressively and shoved it across the table in disgust.

The book slid all the way across the tabletop and off the other side and Merrill had been forced to make a grab for it in order to stop it from falling to the floor. In her haste to catch it she had bumped the little box -in which she kept her flint and steel- to the ground, causing the hidden compartment in the back of it, to spring open; scattering the coins she hid there all across her earthen floor.

“Oh well that's just lovely.” She'd groused, as she carefully set the book in the middle of her little table and then bent to start hunting down the coinage. As she did so, she contemplated just _why_ it might be that she was still so physically frustrated; she'd never been unable to satisfy her few -infrequent- urges with her own hand before, so why now? What made tonight different? As she gathered up the last of her sparse little collection of coins, she'd come to the conclusion that it was unfortunately a simple case of un-sated curiosity. She'd known about sex and love-making obviously, one didn't remain friends with Isabela without learning _some_ things, but today had been the first time she'd witnessed such a thing first hand, and the reality of it had been so remarkably different from what her vague imaginings had been, as to leaving her rather shocked.

It had been a good deal rougher that she’d always imagined, for one. The motion faster, more jerky, than she'd pictured. And louder! Merrill never felt the need to make more than a quiet little gasp whenever she took care of her own needs, and only ever at the very end. But the sounds Hawke had made throughout... Clearly _something_ about the actual act was markedly different; those cries and sobbing pleas had seemed to be pulled out of the rogue by force. Pulled, or possibly _driven_ out of her. Clearly Hawke had been enjoying herself.

Merrill had felt her stomach do that odd little dropping thing again as she recalled the image of Hawke crying out before she'd grown still and flushed. The look on her face, strained but somehow _joyful_ at the same time; it wasn't an expression like any Merrill had ever witnessed and one _she_ certainly had no experience with. The ache in Merrill's loins was back and she pressed her thighs together trying to alleviate it; trying to put pressure on the emptiness of-

That was it!

Empty.

 _That_ was why she couldn't seem to satisfy herself! She felt empty, and she had nothing with which to _fill_ that emptiness.

Merrill had stood in the middle of her tiny room, her hand clutching her little pile of coins as she finally came to understand her problem. Having seen the sight of her friends making love -having _seen_ Anders fill Hawke up – it had left her physically aware of the emptiness within her; it had just taken her mind all this time to put a name to the sensation. After all, in that respect she'd been 'empty' all her life; she'd never had comparison by which to say 'this is the thing I'm missing' for it had never been there in the first place.

Her momentary flash of excitement had fled a few breaths later though, when the reality of her epiphany had truly come home. It was all very well that she now understood _why_ she was unable to see herself satisfied... but that got her no closer to actually seeing it done. After all, she simply didn't have a lover to fill her up.

With a defeated little groan she'd flopped back down into her chair, and carefully dumped her little handful of coins back in to the little box; the silver and copper gleaming in the flickering firelight. She contemplated the little pile of glimmering metal, idly wondering just how much she'd manage to squirrel away in this little stash of hers. More than she'd thought, apparently, and there was more silver pieces than copper now...

She went suddenly still; the niggling breathe of an idea forming in the back of her mind.

 _You may not_ have _a lover who could fill you up_ -that treacherous little thought whispered- _but you could always_ buy _one._

Which is how she had ended up here, fidgeting outside the Blooming Rose trying to work up the nerve to go in and pay the stern looking woman the handful of silver coins it would take in order that her curiosity and her _emptiness_ might be sated. She’d been meaning to spend this on something nice for her little home... but after everything that had happened, well, this suddenly felt more important than some random bit of pretty trinketry

“You'll never accomplish anything if you just keep standing out here in the dark, Merrill.” She had told herself sternly as she'd once again gathered up the small collection of coin and carefully counted it out. She was pretty sure it was enough to get her the services of… someone in the brothel.

But now that she was here. She hadn't seemed able to work up the nerve to actually go in and _do the deed._ Truth be told, she had always found the place rather distasteful. It was all very pretty and what not, but it was just, well it all seemed so... unsavory.

“Enough of this foolishness, Merrill.” She told herself, as she straightened her spine and forced her feet to take her across the cobbles toward the brightly painted red door. “You said you wanted this, and that is that. If you want to experience what it’s like then this is the place to do it. You just have to do it is all. You just go inside and say what you want. There's nothing to be af- ofe!”

In her distracted state of trying to give herself the pep talk she needed to just take the plunge, she apparently hadn't been paying very much attention to where she was walking and so hadn't noticed the door as it opened inward before her, and thus walked right into the chest of someone who was leaving.

“Oh! I'm so sorry! That was entirely my fault I wasn't looking where I was going, and I was just so nervous I hope it didn't cause any trouble – I didn't mean to run into you li-”

“Kitten?” Merrill's head had whipped up, her eyes going hugely round and the sight of Isabela standing in the doorway, looking down at the little Dalish elf with an equally incredulous look.

Horrified at having been seen by one of her friends as she was attempting to actually _enter_ the brothel by herself, Merrill's nerves shattered completely and she scrambled to her feet and ran. She hadn't paid any attention to where she been going; simply headed for the nearest flight of stairs and kept going until her lungs began to burn with her exertion. Eventually, her lungs demanded that she stop and catch her breath; which was probably a good thing. After so much reckless running she had gotten herself rather thoroughly turned around and was now quite hopelessly _lost_.

At first, she was too tired and winded to really care, and she simply leaned up against the wall of the little alley she'd come to rest in one that at least seemed relatively dry and free of ground filth. After a few minutes of panting and gasping she'd finally come back to herself enough to recognize the necessity of figuring out just where she was, so that she might drag herself back home where she could make a nice pot of tea and try to forget that she was _still_ feeling aching and empty.

“Oh dear.” She murmured wringing her hands together again as she tried to discern exactly where she had ended up. It wasn't Darktown, but it was no part of Lowtown she recognized either, and it definitely wasn't the Alienage. But while it was very clear just exactly where she _wasn't,_ it was none the less, quite clear that wherever 'here' was, it was obviously not the most reputable of locations. And there were far too many big hulking humans laughing in that 'too loud' way that only the very drunk had. It was the state of their inebriation that worried her most; drunk shemlen had odd, and oftentimes unpleasant, ideas of 'fun' when it came to lone elves. She folded in on herself a bit and moved a little further back into the shadows of the alley, hoping none of the men had noticed her yet.

“An' just what's a pretty little thing like you doin' out all alone, on Maiden's Eve?”

Too late.

 

**.:xo-DFD-ox:.**

Varric sighed and shifted Bianca to his other shoulder. Ancestors! But stake-out jobs bored the ever living snot out of him. Hawke was right, he was probably wasting his time, sitting here waiting to see if their mark turned up tonight or not. Really, tomorrow was a much more likely bet. And it wasn't as though he could _do_ anything if they actually _did_ turn up; the best he could manage would be to set a tail on them and then gather up the others to deal with them tomorrow.

Nug shit.

If this guy wasn't supposed to be such big shit, he'd have just had one of his runners watch the thrice blighted docks for him.

A loud roar of laughter from the nearby tavern, where the dock workers normally congregated, saw him grumbling under his breath, and shrugging a little deeper into his duster. Good coin or not, this was a lousy way to spend his evening. He'd much rather be inside the bar enjoying some good ale, being the focus of the boisterous laughter, and a warm and willing wench.

The 'warm and willing wench' part of that seemed like a particularly welcome notion, as one of those early spring breezes cut over the wharf and wormed its way under his coat collar. It had been a while since he'd had a woman, and his shoulders were starting to get that achy tense feeling that only ever seemed to go away after he enjoyed a good tumble. Well it _was_ Maiden's Eve. Single women tended to get a little desperate around this time of year. Maybe he'd just call it quits; set one of his boys to watch and see about making his way back to the Hanged Man... surely he'd find someone eager to join him in rumpling his sheets.

Another one of those damned breezes cut under the protection of his coat again and his mind was made up. He fished out a coin and set it atop his thumb before flipping it up in the air. By the time he caught it again one of his runners was at his side. He gave the boy the coin along with a description of the ship and person he was looking for.

“If he turns up, I need him followed till he settles somewhere, then come find me. And _don't_ get made; it's not worth your life if he catches you tailing him. Got that?” The urchin nodded, then skillfully melted back into the shadows of the little alley. Satisfied with the situation, Varric had stepped out of the little alley, turning his collar up against the wind, and set out towards the Hanged Man. The night was young yet, and if he was lucky there was bound to be a few bodies yet, still sober enough, to consider the option of a little company.

He only managed a few steps, however, when that pesky breeze crept up on him again, only this time it carried with it something far more chilling than the nip of early spring frost. There was a voice on the wind; a voice he knew.

“I don't want any trouble!”

“Ah, nug shit.” He muttered, rubbing a hand over his eyes, even as he turned back and went looking for the source. What in the Deep Roads was Daisy doing out on this part of the docks at this hour? _Getting in trouble apparently,_ he answered himself as he rounded the corner and came into view of an alley on the other side of the tavern that was the twin of the one he'd been camped out in all evening.

Sure enough, there was Daisy. She'd gotten herself backed into the blind alley with three big knuckle-heads bearing down on her. Her staff was in her hand but, understandably, the elf had yet to do anything more than threaten the humans with the gnarled length of wood. Varric didn't blame her. The alley was a short one, and if she started casting, the flash of magic was sure to grab the attention of someone. This early in the evening, the docks were still plenty crowded; and while it was safe money to bet that no one would waste the breath to call the guard on a pack of humans interfering with a lone she-elf, you could put equally safe money that the moment any of those same people caught even a _whiff_ of magic the docks would be crawling with templars before you could say 'apostate'. And that was a road that only lead in only one direction for Daisy.

“Com'on precious. We just wanna 'ave a' bit'o fun.” Said Knucklehead Number One as he made a grab for her. Merrill side stepped him with a show of grace that usually eluded the little elf. Normally she was clumsy enough to make walruses look elegant by comparison. Unfortunately, the move also saw her all but walking straight into the arms of Knucklehead Number Two and she had to bring her staff around right quick to avoid him. She knocked him a good one in the face in the process, and the moment Varric saw the blood of that split lip, he'd known they were in for it. Low-minded brutes like these didn't forgive getting bloodied by elves.

“Knife eared bitch!” Snarled the drunk advancing on the little elf with significantly more menace to his drunken gait than he'd been demonstrating only moments before.

“No. I said, stay back!” Daisy said as she backed away from them until she was literally up against the wall.

 _Well, shit. Don't I pay people to keep this kind of crap from happening?_ He thought with a sigh as he pulled Bianca over his shoulder and set her sights on the big one, just as he started to close in on Daisy while her attention was still focused on the other two. He took careful aim, not wanting to see the situation escalate any further; he pulled the trigger, letting the bolt fly, pulling the big brute up short as it flew right in front of the tip of his nose, before burying itself in the moldy mortar of the brick wall beyond.

“She's not interested, Dickheads; but Bianca here, well she's a sucker for drunk, dumb, and ugly.”

“Keep out of it, Stumpy. T'ain't none of yur concern.” Said the seeming ringleader, who hadn’t just about gotten a nostril pierced

 _Stumpy? Really?_ _A crack at my height; t_ _hat's the best you've got?_ Varric fought the urge to laugh at the man as he cocked Bianca with lightning speed, took aim and offered him the same view of one of her bolts clipping past his cheek with hardly a millimeter to spare. The bolt actually clipped the man's ear as it passed leaving a bleeding scratch in its wake. “Now you see, it kinda is,” He said, dropping Bianca's nose a little to show he wasn't _looking_ for a fight, as the man clapped a hand over his stinging ear. “'cause Daisy here, she happens to be a friend of mine. And Bianca?” He said giving the crossbow a fond pat, “Well, she doesn’t much like it when people start messing with our friends. So, tell you what. How about you gentlemen apologize to my friend and we all just walk away. No harm; no foul. ”

“Why you little shit!” The man in the back snarled, making a grab for Daisy as the other two shared a look before they both rushed him. _So much for diplomacy_. Varric thought as he swung Bianca up, sighting and firing almost simultaneously.

“Daisy! Get down!” He shouted as the three men all moved at once. He sighted on the man, going for Daisy, and loosed two bolts in sharp secession. The bolts pinned him to the wall by his shirt-sleeve, effectively taking him out of the fight. Varric rapidly turned the crossbow on the other two, but they'd covered the ground between him and them too quickly.

The dwarf was forced to trigger the mechanism that slid out Bianca’s bayonet and had to move double time to get her nose up in time to slice the first one to reach him with a nasty cut right across the top of his leg; parting muscle from bone more efficiently than he'd intended, as the idiot continued to charge into the cut, effectively crippling the dumb bastard. Varric ducked out from under the human as he fell cussing out Varric's entire lineage, and rolled to the side in order to gain some room to work with. He'd just come up from his somersault, his hand dragging the dagger sheathed in his boot free; when he heard the last man breathing down his neck, his gamble for space not having paid off. He was not the best in close quarters fighting, but he made up for his shorter stature and lack of agility with strong knives and even stronger arms.

He'd just turned on his boot heels crouched low and ready to cut his opponent’s shins out from under him when the man's eyes suddenly rolled back into his head and he collapsed to the ground at Varric's feet. The Dwarf's eyes traveled up from the, now unconscious human, to Daisy, where she was standing behind him, staff raised in a fashion that suggested she'd just used it to deliver a knockout blow to the drunk's thick skull.

“Do you think they'll be alright?” She asked looking around at the men lying about the alley in various states of incapacitation. Varric had to snort for the elf's show of concern over three men who moments before, had clearly had less than savory intention regarding her person.

“They'll be fine. Grab that one's coin purse, will you, Daisy.” He straightened up and made his way over to the fool rolling around the alley, clutching at his bleeding leg. A tap to his jaw with Bianca's heel put the poor devil out. A mercy, allowing him to escape the pain like that; honestly, he should get a medal or something for being so perfectly generous of spirit sometimes. He proceeded to rummage around the blighter's pockets, relieving him of his purse while the third man rained insults down on him and Daisy both as he struggled to pull himself free of the wall. He tossed the small pouch of coppers up into the air and caught it again with a grin; before he made his way over to the last.

“You little, rock biting, thieving shit!” The man snarled, taking a swing at the dwarf with his free hand, Varric easily dodged it, coming up under his arm and popping him one under the jaw. The man slumped down the wall, dazed and groaning, until he was hanging from the bolts. Varric relieved him of his coin purse as well.

“Consider it reparations for the trouble.” He informed the barely conscious thug in a patronizing tone, before he reached up and yanked the bolts from the mortar with a hard jerk; he'd then collected the other two bolts he'd planted in the wall, and Daisy. As they made their way out onto the main thoroughfare again he tossed the elf the heavier of the two purses. “Com'on, Daisy let's get you home.”

“Are you sure we should just be leaving them like that?” The Dalish elf asked as she trailed along beside him, looking back at the then three groaning figures. Varric tried not to laugh again; honestly, only Daisy could be so worried about the health and safety of her would be attackers.

“They'll be _fine,_ Daisy. They might be missing their clothes when they wake up,” He said with and unconcerned shrug, “but that's just part of the gamble you take when you play rough down here. Speaking of which, mind telling me what _you_ were doing down here... alone... in the middle of the night?” He inquired, cocking his eyebrow at her as they walked back toward the more familiar dangers of Lowtown.

“I'm not entirely sure really. Where is _here_ exactly?” Daisy asked, looking around her in that semi-clueless way of hers that always made Varric want to smile even as he cringed.

“The docks, Daisy.” He said patiently. “Can't you tell by the smell?”

“OH!” She stopped dead in the middle of walk and look around herself with wide eyes “Now I see! There's Hawke's statue! You know I never really noticed it before, but that really doesn't look like her at all does it? And she doesn't fight with a sword; why did they give her one do you think?” Varric shook his head a little as he caught a hold of the she-elf's arm and pulled her to the side of street so that she wouldn't call any _more_ unnecessary attention to herself with the gawking. Maker's breath it _would_ be just like her to notice something like that glaring inaccuracy _now_. Hawke, Isabela and himself had, had a good laugh about it the day it was unveiled; Anders on the other hand, _had_ been livid on his lover's behalf, but then, the damned thing did look rather more like a Templar than anything else.

It took a bit of prodding, but eventually Varric had managed to shepherd the elf back to the more familiar streets and back alleys of Lowtown, and from there it was only a matter of a few minutes' walk to the Alienage. He still hadn't spotted his man who was supposed to be tailing her though which had started to feel worrisome. If there was one thing he could trust Daisy to do, it was get in trouble between here and her front door. If he had to take her all the way there himself, he might as well kiss any possible chance of finding a suitable and sober _-enough_ \- bed partner goodbye. Finally, he spotted his man, Fingers, looking nervously about at the top of the Aleinage stair. The runner-dwarf took one look at Varric's face and went a rather impressive shade of white – dwarves usually don't get that pale.

“A moment, Daisy?” He said leaving the little elf to her cooing over some flea bitten cat she'd spotted. “Alright, what happened? And make it good, Fingers, I just had to beat off three drunken idiots, cause she got lost on the Docks.”

“The Docks? How in the blazes did she end up there!” The runner groaned.

“That's just it; I don't know. I pay _you_ to inform me about these sort of things. So go on, Fingers; _inform_.”

“It wasn't my fault, I swear! She'd just been standing there staring at the place for almost an 'alf hour! I only looked away for a momen' to see if someone was round I could send for you, and when I looked back she's off an' running like a rabbit! I tried keeping up with her but she was 'head o' me, definitely headed for Lowtown, I swear! only I got, here and she' wasn't in front o' me no more.”

“Hold on, hold on. Staring at _what_ place for half an hour? Where was she that wasn't _in_ Lowtown, exactly?”

“About an hour ago she just up and left her place and marched up to the red lantern distric' and then spent 'alf an hour fidgeting across the courtyard from The Rose.”

“The Rose!” Varric half shouted. His eyes whipped back to Daisy where she had sat down and had the flea bitten alley cat curled up on her lap like a pampered pet. “What in the void was she doing there?”

Fingers just shrugged. “I thought it was odd; but I didn' see any of the others to send your way. And you're always telling us we're not to interfere unless there's trouble.”

 _Yeah, and Daisy going to the brothel... That doesn’t smack of trouble, at all._ He rubbed the back of his neck with a muffled groan. “Right, I'll talk to her; see she gets home. And Fingers? Don't let this happen again.”

“Right. Sorry.” The other dwarf apologized meekly, with a slightly chagrined smile before melting back into the shadows.

Varric turned his attention back to Daisy, biting down on his curiosity. It was none of his business what the elf got up to in her free time. He had her tailed because she was a friend of his and Hawke's, whom, neither of them wanted to see get into any serious trouble and because the silly - _adorable_ \- elf didn't have the self-preservation instincts of a day old nug.

“Don't play with that, Daisy, you don't know where it's been." Varric grimaced, eying up the mangy looking cat but thinking mostly of the entertainers in the Rose. He honestly couldn't even picture it, and that was kind of his area; picturing the impossible. However, he knew the Dalish elf didn't particularly approve of whores; so why in Thedas had she been there? Varric shook off the urge to question her "Alright, Daisy, let's get you home."

"Varric." Merrill said in a small voice. "Could I come to the Hanged Man for a bit? I won't be any bother, I swear." Varric gave the suddenly subdued elf a lingering look. "Of course, if you have plans I guess I should probably just go back to the Alienage..."

 _Well, there go my plans for the evening..._ Varric thought with a rueful little chuckle before he offered the elf a saucy smile. "Now Daisy, you know me better than that! When have I ever turned away company?" A bright smile lit up the she-elf's face and she promptly set the stray aside and popped up to her feet. Varric made a show of an overly formal bow, “After you.” which made her giggle at his antics as they, then, both turned in the direction of the tavern.

Varric tried to bite his tongue on the gnawing _need_ to know what had driven Daisy up there _tonight_ of all nights. Maiden's eve seemed like a damned odd time for her to be visiting a place she patently disliked. _Hmmmm._ He knew a few elves worked there… perhaps she'd made a sweetheart of one of them? No, that couldn't be right. She'd never get caught-up with a… uh, _professional_ ; and he was pretty sure most of the whores actually lived in the back rooms of the brothel – at least they certainly didn't live in the Alienage- so where would she have even encountered any of them to begin with?

As Varric continued to worry at the riddle of her Hightown visit, Daisy was slowly losing her bubble again; her steps becoming more even and subdued, her face more melancholy by the moment. When she'd huffed out a quiet, heavy, sigh Varric couldn't take it anymore.

"Daisy, this whole wanting to come to the Hanged Man tonight... it wouldn't have anything to do with why you were up in Hightown, now would it?"

The elf's ears blushed a rosy pink and she dropped her eyes to the flagstones. "Maybe a little." She murmured, the dwarf simply continued to look up from the corner of his eye, waiting for the flood gate to open; 'cause Daisy couldn't keep quiet if paid to. Tonight, however, she surprised him, managing to keep her usual flood of words held meekly behind the dam of her lips; and, before Varric knew it, they'd been walking in to the riotous noise and stink of the over crowed common room.

He sent the elf up to his suite where it was quieter; determined to set about interrogating her until he'd figured out what it was that had put her in such an odd mood. He made his way to the bar and croft, and collected a couple mugs of the bars strongest -still piss awful- ale and made a direct line for his quarters.

He'd literally just crossed the threshold, a question regarding the elf's presence in the red lantern district on his lips; when Daisy straightened in her chair, and dropped the biggest bomb of his life, right on his head.

“Varric, would you have sex with me? Tonight. Right now.” Varric's step faltered and beer sloshed out over his gloves as he very nearly tripped over his own jaw where it was lying on the floor.

_The Rose. Sex. Right. I guess that makes sense… sort of._

 

**.:xo-DFD-ox:.**

 

“Is something the matter, Varric?” It had taken Merrill a few moments to realize something was wrong with the storyteller but when he continued to just stand there and look at her like that -beer dripping over his hands and onto the floor, his mouth slightly open and brows raised- she did eventually clue in to the fact that she might have been - _perhaps_ \- a bit _blunt_ asking him, all sudden-like, like that.

Maybe that wasn't the best way to broach the subject... but she didn't know how else one went about it. Isabela had always seemed to just walk up to a man and then they were walking off together sometimes without so much as a word passing between them; and Merrill was never entirely certain what had happened. Clearly she couldn't do that; for starts she had no idea _how_ Isabela did that, for seconds it only seemed to work with men you'd only just met going by Isabela's example and she knew Varric rather well, when it was all said and done.

She'd deiced on the walk back from the Docks that, despite her continued, lingering, discomfort she really didn’t want it to be a random stranger she shared her first time with. After all, Isabela had always said that if you did it wrong it could make you sick; like sailing -and she had gotten terribly sea-sick the last time she's gone sailing. So what was to say some random stranger wouldn't do it wrong? _She_ certainly didn't know how to do it right. Nor did she seem to have Isabela's ability to guess on who might be _able_ to do it right just by looking at them in a crowd.

No, better to do it with someone she trusted; someone who knew what they were doing.

It was as she'd made that decision, that they'd walked into the Hanged Man, and Varric had placed a warm protective hand on the small of her back, as he deftly steered her passed the loud and rowdy drunks by the door, only sending her ahead to his suite after they were clear of the worst of the rabble-rousers, while he darted off to fetch them some drinks. At which point, as she was walking up the back stair, she had come to the realization that she trusted Varric very much; and he always seemed to be looking out for her -even to the point of being silly about it. That kind of behavior would imply he cared about her, right? You didn't do things like that -she wasn't dumb; she knew he had her followed around town- unless you were at least fond of someone, surely?

And anyone who told as many dirty stories and jokes as Varric, would certainly have to know what he was doing, right? That made sense, didn't it? Really he seemed like the best person she could possibly want to help her out of her predicament.

Decision made, she'd sat down to wait for him, only when he'd walked through the door she had suddenly realized she didn't have the slightest clue how to go about this whole business and had simply blurted out the first words that came to mind in order to express her desire for the evening. Obviously, that was yet another place she'd gone and put her foot in it, regarding socials customs based on the look Varric was giving her.

She huffed out a long suffering sigh. Things had been so much easier amongst the Dalish; everyone was fairly straight forward amongst her own people. Varric recovered easily enough from his momentary lapse into stunned incredulity with a shake of his head, as he straightened up from his half stumbled pose and he gave her one of his trade mark laughs.

“Shit, you gotta watch how you phrase those hypothetical questions, Daisy; a man could get the wrong idea, you asking him a thing like that.”

“But, it wasn't meant to be a hypothetical question, Varric. I'm being completely serious; I was asking if you would like to have sex with me this evening.”

“Okay, Daisy, what brought this on all of a sudden?” The dwarf asked, leveling her with an almost accusatory stare.

“Brought what on, Varric?”

“First the Rose, and now this.” He waved his hand between the two of them for clarification “Whatever _this_ is.

“Nothing in particular.” She lied, not very convincingly as his eyes narrowed at her and she felt the tips of her ears getting warm.

“Yeah, not gonna fly. You ain't the Rivaini to be all brazen; not without a reason. Spill.”

“I just... well I _might_ have - _possibly_ \- seen Hawke and Anders earlier today. I didn't mean to! We went to the Coast for a picnic, sort off, well _they_ went for a picnic and Hawke invited me along only Anders was upset about that, cause it was supposed to be just the two of them. So I went off to gather herbs and I found this lovely big patch of Embrium and I wasn't thinking and I went running back. Only I forgot I was supposed be giving them some alone time, and they were rather, well... _indisposed_ , shall we call it? I guess. And I, well I've just been left feeling this achy kind of emptiness ever since. And I don't have anyone to do that sort of thing with the way Hawke and Isabela do and I really want this feeling to go away, so I said to myself 'Now, Merrill if you have a problem you have to fix it yourself only I can't seem to - make it go away myself, that is. So then I thought that the only way to make it go away would be to have sex with someone, only when I got to the Rose Isabela and was coming out and I sort of walked right into her and fell down and I just was so flustered after that and that's when you found me on the docks.” Varric was just looking at her again like she'd suddenly sprouted a set of horns like a Qunari. Daisy spared him only a glance as she went on to say, “Overall, I'm really quite glad it turned out this way. I'd much rather be with you than someone... _not_.” She finished scrunching up of her nose in distaste at the thought that's she'd even been considering going to one of the um... _working people,_ for such a thing.

Varric's eyes had been steadily growing wider as Daisy's little babbling monologue went on, though he'd managed to keep his jaw from falling open again.

“So~ let me see if I've got all that straight, Daisy: you ended up spying on Anders and Hawke having sex in the middle of the woods, now you're horny and looking for someone to take care of that for you?”

“Well that is a little plain, and a bit of an over simplification, but I guess that is essentially right. Yes.” she said with a thoughtful tilt to her head before nodding eagerly at him. “So, will you? Have sex with me that is? Cause I've tried taking care of it alone and I was going to end up raw if I rubbed myself anymore.”

 

**.:xo-DFD-ox:.**

 

 _Shit!_ was she telling him she'd been masturbating all evening? She was! A sudden flood of vivid - _unsolicited_ \- mental images saw Varric swallowing hard and he had to fight to make his voice sound normal. “I don't think that it would be the best idea, Daisy.” He finally got out past his irrationally dry mouth, wincing internally to hear the tiny rasp that lingered despite his efforts.

“Is it because of Bianca? The woman, not the crossbow, I mean. I always thought she was dead. Is she not? Will she be jealous?”

“No that's not... Bianca is... it's complicated; but no, she doesn't have a problem with me having... _company_ now and again.” He temporized trying to get the words out without grimacing; it would be nice if she did have an issue with it, then maybe she'd understand how it sometime felt on his end, every time he had to watch her walk back to _him._

"Well, why not then?" Merrill asked looking at him with those big wide bottomless pools of ivy she called eyes. "Is it a dwarf/elf thing? Do you not find me attractive, Varric?"

No that definitely wasn't the problem, either.

Varric knew that most of his brethren found elves not only unattractive, but downright ugly. Too skinny, breakable, even; all pointy lines and narrow bones, no real substance or strength in them. Perhaps in that respect Varric was just, yet again, the odd man out; or perhaps, he just spent too much time in the company of the other races; but he'd certainly never had any problems finding appealing attributes on his elven and human colleagues. Not to be misunderstood, he loved a well-appointed dwarf-maid; thick and curvaceous in all the right places, they tended to be positively mouthwatering. But on the side of shapely little willow reeds, Daisy was certainly a tempting eyeful.

Breasts that had no business calling the chest of an elf home, that taut narrow little waist, hips and ass that looked downright chewable... and those shapely little legs of hers weren't exactly anything to sneeze at either. If he had to pick a favorite feature on Daisy it was definitely her legs. Elves had the best legs. Slender and easy to get a good grip on; they had the advantage of length over dwarven legs, without being so long as to be ungainly and in his way in the bed, the way _human_ limbs tended to be. Varric's mind flashed to the image of Daisy stretched out before him, those lovely legs of hers wrapped right around him, as he buried himself in her tight elven core, her breasts bouncing perfectly on each thrust, her skin flushed until those tattoos of hers were barely visible...

His mouth went a little drier and there was a definite stirring in his britches as his cock woke up to the fact that perhaps their plans for this evening hadn't been quite so thoroughly canceled as they'd originally thought. As he tried to correct the overeager dwarf in his smalls, his gaze, trying to avoid the little elf's mildly unnerving -very _over direct_ \- stare, flicked down to Daisy's hands which were also covered in her vallaslin. His mind, eager to encourage him down this path, quickly began assaulting him with the speculation and rumors he'd heard over the years about Dalish blood-writing. Specifically about just how much of a Dalish elf's body was supposedly covered in the pale tattoos. Were those delicate scrolling marks really to be found everywhere under Daisy's robes? Again the thought of the little elf's naked legs called forth an image in his thrice cursed overly-vivid imagination. This time he pictured one of those perfect legs thrown over his shoulder as he plowed into her heat; the creamy smooth skin covered in a lacy scrollwork of tattoos he might trace with his tongue, the better to watch her writhe and come undone beneath him.

 _Damn it_ _d_ _warf! Get a hold of yourself!_ Obviously this track wasn't working. He needed to change tactics.

"Now Daisy, you've nothing to fret about on that front." He reassured her, "You're positively the prettiest little flower I know, but this isn't about looks." When she gave him a puzzled look he continued to try and talk her round to his way of thinking "Now, I may be the very Paragon of manliness, but do you even _like_ me, Daisy?"

"Of course I like you, Varric! That's a silly question; I wouldn't be your friend if I didn't like you, after all." She said eagerly leaning forward, in a move that saw her breasts caught up between her arms so they ended up pushed together and up in what the storyteller was sure was an entirely unconscious, positively enticing and seductive, move. If it had been the Rivaini sitting across from him, he'd have been just as certain it was a very calculated and deliberate one, but this was _Daisy_ and she had the market cornered on that whole 'guileless' front.

"Right." Varric croaked before clearing his throat, and dragging his eyes off the sight of her tits all squashed together and on display for him like that, with a real effort. "But I think you're getting the definition 'like' in this situation rather confused, there Daisy. I know you like me as a friend, but do you _Like_ me? Am _I_ attractive to _you_? To put it simply: do you look at me and think of sex?"

"Well I've never really thought about it like that before." The elf mused finally taking her eyes off of him and sitting back in her chair a bit to contemplate his point. “Probably not before today." Varric sighed a little internal sigh of relief, at least he told himself it was relief; not regret -definitely _not_ regret!- that she had finally seen his point.

"Well there you have it, Daisy. If I'm not the kind of person you like to do that sort of thing with then there's no point risking our friendship over a cheap thrill, right?" He stood up and turned to fetch his cards from his desk drawer, intent on distracting the elf -and himself if he was honest- away from the highly uncomfortable line of conversation with a nice simple game of Diamond Back. That was the only reason he did it. He certainly wasn't turning his back on the little elf in order to _hide_ anything; any possible disappointment that might slip through his otherwise flawless wicked grace-face, for instance.

"But that's just it!" Merrill piped up cheerfully behind him just as he collected the deck of playing cards. "I don't know what kind of person I like having sex with! I've never had sex with anyone before, so how am I supposed to know what I like in a partner? How am I supposed to know what I like if I've never tried it with anyone?"

Varric froze. _No. you heard that wrong._ He told himself as he casually began to shuffle the cards.

"You're gonna have to say that again, Daisy... cause it sounded to me like you just told me you were asking me to pop your Cherry."

"Well I don't know anything about a cherry, but I was asking if you would have sex with me, and it would be my first time doing such a thing... is that what you meant?"

 _Well fuck me sideways._ He thought with an internal groan placing the cards back on the desk as he closed his eyes and rubbed his temple with a beer-damp glove trying to ease the headache that was threatening. _I'd have pegged her as 'inexperienced' not 'virginal'_. Honestly, who'd ever heard of a virgin blood-mage… Was that even a thing?

“That would be the standard interpretation of that particular idiom, yeah.” He said crossing his arms over his chest and leaning on the desk at his back; trying to figure out what he was supposed to do with that little gem of information she'd just casually tossed his way. Along with, her being 'almost raw' from dipping her digits, 'aching and empty' after getting the voyeuristic jollies watching Hawke, and let's not forget 'would you have sex with me?' Honestly what was a dwarf supposed to do with information like that? He couldn't just ignore it; not when it was so clearly driving her every decision and warping her better-but-never-good-in-the-first-place-judgment.

Merrill stood with a sigh. “Oh well, it was worth asking I suppose; but seeing as you seem not to be very interested... I'm sure I can find someone here who isn't too much of a stranger. I'll just be leaving yo-”

 _Ah' Nug Shit._ Varric had less than thirty seconds to make a choice between taking her up on her crazy offer or letting her walk out of his room and into common room full of increasingly rowdy drunks; which really wasn't an option at all for a friend and gentleman.

“Daisy, wait!” He said, hastening to intercept her before she could walk out of his suite and proposition that crazy drunk that liked to hang out in the corridor. “Sit down and have another drink. I'll... I'll get the door.

 _I'll get the door._ Four little words, and suddenly their course was set.

Daisy had an itch, and Varric, had the knowhow to scratch it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: AHHHHH! Cliff hanger! How did that happen! Oh. Right. This was /supposed/ to be a one-shot for Valentines and as-per-ussaul it got WAY out of hand, and I got spooked about making my deadline (this was really not the week for me to catch the nastiest head-cold in the history of head-colds, let me tell you). If absolutely every thing goes right in my life, then I may still manage to get chapter two posted on valentines... if not I apologizes profusely and swear it shall be up not long there after.
> 
> As always I'd /LOVE/ to hear from you! So drop me a 'hello', a comment, a review, hell! a harshly worded critique! I will dance the rigamaroled in you honor! I swear!
> 
> Hope to see you all again in a few days.
> 
> An Update: obviouly I missed Valentines, and truth be told, life just went to complete shit here. It is still coming! In the mean time any and all comments are greatly appreciated. I could use the pick-me-up and motivation.


	2. A Steady Hand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: AND~ it's late... By like three weeks. Surprise, surprise; I suck at deadlines... though really it's not my fault this time (well at least not /entirely/ so). You remember how I said everything would have to go /just/ right in order for me to make valentines? Yeah, didn't happen. To make a long story short: "Life. Hell. Hand-basket." all the day after I posted. But to make it up to you all and reward you all for your patience I have written you all a nice lovely /LONG/ sex scene (about 20k all told). One that is -alas- too long to be posted in a single chapter... again. So once again my story comes with the 'multi-chapter sex scene' tag despite my best efforts.
> 
> Chapter Warnings:Firstly, this chapter involves mostly the light side of foreplay, kissing, stripping, first touches etc so please don't kill me. Oh! and Merrill being Merrill... and a virgin... so /awkwardness/: take from that what you will. Secondly, in my head-cannon elves have /no/ body hair and dwarves have a /LOT/ of it... and I don't skimp on the gory details, so if you're one of those people whose tetchy about such things -be aware: it's gonna come up. And lastly -IT'S SMUT! DWARF ON ELF SMUT! - if you have a problem with that idea, I recommend leaving now, or risk have such images forever burned into your brain (cause I write some very visual, feely shit and I will paint pictures in your mind with my words)... oh yeah, and language... did I mention that I -like Varric- swear... a lot... No? Well Yeah. It happens.
> 
> Right. You've all waited long enough! Onward to the deflowering!

**Chapter 2**

**A Steady Hand**

 

Varric walked to the door and closed it; gently sliding the bolt home to see that they weren't disturbed. Then he just stood there staring at the wood-grain, as he tried to process how -exactly- they'd gotten here.

He was honestly torn by the odd direction events had taken. He had, indeed, been hoping for a tumble to end his evening; and his cock was certainly more than willing to see where this thing with Daisy went...

But still... it was  _Daisy_  damn it!

And  _virginal_  Daisy, no less. He resisted the urge to thump his head against the door. If there was one thing he really hadn't been planning on doing tonight, it was breaking in a virgin. There was a certain amount of  _responsibility_  implicit in taking on such an endeavor. Responsibility, which meant that this evening was suddenly a lot less likely to be  _just_  a bit of lighthearted fun.

Behind him, he heard a clattering and turned back just in time to see that Daisy had shed the woven leather leg-guards she wore instead of boots, her belt, and was in the process of gathering her tunic that she might lift it over her head.

"Woah!" He jumped across the intervening space between the door and his table and grabbed a hold of the green fabric; firmly pulling it back down over the -granted very charming- sight of Merrill's pale slender belly. "Let's just slow down a moment, alright Daisy? Just take a breath."

"But you're supposed to take your clothes off when you have sex." She stated, looking at him with a bird-like tilt to her head. "We are having sex, right? That was why you locked the door. Or at least I thought that was why, because you  _never_  lock your door. Or do you prefer to do it with the clothes on? Anders and Hawke were wearing theirs, but I think that had more to do with the fact that they weren't in a lovely private room like yours."

And  _th_ _at_  there, was exactly why Varric tended not to get involved with virgins. They were either shy, or clueless, and occasionally both. Although right about then, he could honestly have done with a little blushing shyness; Daisy didn't seem to have much of a sense for the 'mood' of these things. She seemed intent on plowing ahead at full-tilt. Varric on the other hand liked to treat a girl nice; take his time and work up to it -even if it  _was_  just a one-time tumble after drinks- but Daisy seemed to think this was more about getting on with the  _business_  of sex, rather than experiencing the  _passion_  of lovemaking.

"Don't worry Daisy, I'm not backing out." He said reassuringly as he carefully pulled off his gloves. Merrill's eyes were drawn to the foreign seeming action as she tried to comprehend just what it was he was doing. Varric  _always_  wore his gloves; and the sight of his naked fingers was so strange a concept that she couldn't seem to tear her eyes from them.

For his part the dwarf didn't seem to notice the elf's fascination with his fingers, as he was currently still trying to figure out just exactly  _how_  he wanted this evening to proceed. How was he even supposed to get the ball rolling under these circumstances? And no; the answer was  _not_  simply letting her strip all her clothes off, while sitting in the middle of his suite...

Maker's honest truth, he'd not done this with someone this well known to him since Bianca, and he was rather out of practice when it came to rolling anyone who wasn't a total stranger. In _that_ situation Varric had the steps down by rote: drinks were consumed, offers were made, then he and his chosen dance partner staggered back up here, half-glued to each other already, and things progressed naturally from there.

 _This_... well this was just aiming to be all kinds of awkward.

 _Shit._ _K_ _issing her is gonna feel like I'm kissing a sister... or Hawke._  He thought, as he reached passed the elf to rescue their abandoned drinks from the middle of the table, handing Daisy hers with a stern look, as he took a sip from his own.  _Well..._ _I guess_ _kissing is as good a place to start as any._ _I_ _f we can't get pas_ _sed_ _that,_ _I don't see how I'm gonna manage to do anything else with her._

Varric again raised his ale to his lips and  this time took a longer heartier swallow -drinking most of it in a single draw- to better bolster his resolve.

Daisy flat out _finished_ her drink, all but chugging it in her eagerness to get Varric back to the point. She'd probably consumed it far too quickly, and giggled -head buzzing with the alcohol- as she set the mug back on the table with a thump. Varric had remained standing just in front of her chair; as he set down his own -mostly empty- mug, he leaned in fractionally and Merrill was a little surprised to feel her heart beat harder at his proximity. With her sitting and him standing, he was almost taller than her; enough that she had to tilt her head back a bit to look him in the eye.

"You've got a bit of froth on your lip there, Daisy." He said, his eyes looking very big and close. She blushed a bit, suddenly feeling very warm and somewhat self-conscious. She hurriedly raised her hand to wipe the foam clinging to her lip clear, when his - _amazingly-_  warm hand caught her own before she'd raised it passed her shoulder. "Here, let me get that for you." He murmured.

Suddenly Varric was very close indeed, and before Merrill quite understood his intent he had leaned in further and kissed her. His tongue slipped out to clean her lip of the froth in a single slow swipe before he pressed his lips to her own. His other warm hand sliding up the back of her neck, until his blunt fingers could card into the silky short hair at her nape, pulling her close. Broad, soft lips slanted across hers, his tongue peeking through; a warmer point that teased over the seam of her closed mouth, gently asking her for admittance.

Merrill's lips parted for him, remembering the steps of  _this_  part of the dance from years gone by.

Varric's tongue dipped into Daisy's mouth, cautiously at first, but when he encountered her soft sweet flavor, he groaned quietly, and quickly set about deepening the kiss further. He pulled the small hand he'd caught in his own to his chest, shifting her position on the chair and stepping up in between her parted knees. Her fingers caught a hold of the fabric of his shirt as she tilted her head further to the side, granting him easier access as her own tongue cautiously came forward to tangle with his as he explored her. He ran his newly freed hand down her arm, then dropped it further down her back; crushing her lithe elvhen frame tighter to his broad dwarven chest.

Merrill let out a whimpering little moan as he crushed her tight against him. She could feel every solid inch of him; feel his hammering heart and the strong muscles of his arms as they locked around her narrow back. Her free hand moved of its own accord, sliding around his waist, under his duster-coat and griping at the small of his back; her nails dragged over the fabric of his shirt and dug at the skin below so that he hissed into the kiss.

Varric felt that little hand rake across his back, making his manhood twitch, and pulled back, breaking the kiss to take a shuddering breath, as he tried to compose himself some.  _Well so much for that being awkward_ , he thought a little wryly, as he took a half-step back and looked down at the elf who was looking up at him with a gratifyingly foggy look about her bright elvhen eyes.

"Alright Daisy, if you're still set on this..." Her head bobbed up and down eagerly, eyes fogged still, a soft pink flush spreading over her cheeks and ears and creeping down her slender pale neck. Varric shook his head and a wry little chuckle escaped him for the strangeness of the whole situation as he caught up her hand once more, and hauled her to her feet, gently tugging her after him in the direction of his bed chamber.

Merrill followed after the dwarf feeling a little floaty. She'd been kissed before -her and Tamlen used to kiss before the Blight- but kissing Varric had been... different. His mouth moved in different ways upon her own, he was more confident, without being forceful; his broad soft lips an intriguing contrast to the prickling rasp of his thick stubble against her chin and cheek. It had all seemed so strange but that hadn't stopped the ache in her loins from growing taught and heavy again the moment his tongue touched hers.

Lost in her contemplation of the lingering feel of that kiss, Merrill barely noticed where he was leading her until he was gently turning her around and encouraging her to sit upon his wide, low bed. She flopped onto the rich jewel-toned red bedding rather ungracefully. She hadn't realized how low the bed was, but now that she found herself seated on it was staggeringly obvious that it hardly made a good place for her to sit. Unlike the chairs and his table,  _this_  piece of furniture had clearly been made with  _nothing_  but dwarven comfort and proportions in mind. If Merrill tried to sit on it normally she'd have had her knees up around her chest. To avoid that she let her feet slide out along the floor; marveling over the feel of the thick pile of the carpet beneath her bare soles. She giggled in delight at the soft cool feel. She looked up at the dwarf to tell him she liked his rug only to find her mouth instantly sealed with another kiss.

Now Varric really  _did_ have some height on her, as he leaned down over her. Instinctively, she raised her arms up and wrapped them around his broad back, opening her mouth to him and letting him demonstrate his skill at kissing a girl senseless. Slowly, he moved into her, pressing her back upon the bed until she was lying back amongst the myriad of throws and cushions at his headboard. This time his mouth was hungrier; more demanding. He suckled upon her tongue whenever she dared offer it to him, and nipped and ran his teeth over her lips and chin whenever they were forced to part for air.

Distantly, she'd been aware of the sound of his heavy boots hitting the ground after he'd managed to toe them off; then he was right up on the bed with her. He needed to lean over sideways, his hips to the side and slightly above her own on the bed, but his chest and torso were almost directly over top of her, pressing her down into his plush bedding, until she could feel the firmness of the dwarven mattress beneath. The way he loomed, his broad shoulders hemming her in and blocking most of her peripheral vision on all sides was shockingly powerful. She'd never have thought it, but with his wide frame poised over her like that, it managed to make her feel  _small_  and she found herself giggling against his mouth at the thought

"You know, Daisy," He murmured between soft pecks, "most men tend to get twitchy when you start giggling under these particular conditions." Despite the reprimanding nature of his words, Merrill could nevertheless feel the presence of his signature smirk as he pressed his lips against her skin again and again, leaving a trail of soft kisses and small tingling scrapes of his teeth along her jaw.

"I'm sorry Varric! I just never thought you could make me feel all  _small_  like you're doing. What with you being a dwarf and so short an a-OHHH!" Merrill interrupted herself as she cried out in shocked pleasure to feel his questing mouth as it reached its goal, and sucked the small tight bundle of nerves located in the lower portion of her ear lobe into that talented mouth. She cried out and she arched up into his chest, her hips rolling toward him of their own volition as he casually worked her ear, causing wild flairs of icy-fire to course throughout her body. He ended off with a gentle nip, that saw sparks bloom behind her eyes and her toes curling into the bedding.

"Now, those are  _much_  more the kind of sounds I like to hear." He chuckled as he sat back, admiring the way she panted and squirmed on his bed; thighs rubbing together, her ivy gaze glazed over and a little lost looking.

"That was incredible!" She panted, her fingers flitting up along the length of her still tingling ear, as Varric stood from the bed.

"Well, I know you've at least done  _some_  kissing, Daisy -no one kisses like that their first time- but are you honestly telling me no one's ever gone after your ears before? It's the first law of Elf-loving: _'attend_ _to_ _the_ _ears_ _'_

"Tamlen and I... we never got much passed the kissing. And he didn't kiss like you at all."

"Sweetheart," Varric said with a rakish grin, " _no-one_  kisses like me." His eyebrow quirked up suggestively before he turned and set about drawing the two heavy velvet drapes, covering the passage from the main suite. Turning back, he shucked his coat and tossed it over the low stool placed below the single sconce which was now the only illumination in the suddenly much more intimate seeming space. He then bent to rapidly rid himself of his socks too, and Merrill sat up on the bed, an excited flush creeping over her cheeks again.

"Are we getting naked now?" she asked eagerly, all but bouncing with her excitement; and before Varric could so much as chuckle at her almost childlike eagerness to be done with her clothes, Daisy had shed half of them. The hem of her tunic came up over her head in a flash; and the breast band followed suit before Varric could even choke on his shock. Again he was forced to double time it in order to close the distance between them, barely managing it before she could finish with the ties of her leggings too. A small exasperated sigh escaped him as she finally stilled in his grasp.

"Daisy, one of these days, you and I, are gonna have a nice long chat about 'mood'."

"Oh dear. Have I done something wrong then? To be ruining the  _mood_ , I mean." She asked falling back onto her arms and affording him with a very nice -very tempting- view of her now naked breasts. They really were a  _spectacular_  pair of tits for an elf. Varric felt his tongue dart forward and moisten his lips with the desire to lean in and suck upon one of those pert pink nipples; he restrained himself –  _just_. Not that Daisy would have minded any, it was just he really wanted to get a handle on the situation again. He kept thinking he'd finally achieved the upper hand only to have Daisy go haring off on him the moment he gave her an ounce of breathing room.

"Not  _wrong_  exactly it's just..." he sighed. "Some men," he informed her, gently nudging her hand away so that he could finish the job she'd started, "like to be a part of the whole 'removal of clothing' bit." His lock-picking fingers made short work of the knots and saw the laces loose in seconds. "And, well, it never hurts to take a bit of _time_ with unwrapping the goods."

"Oh! Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't realize! You wanted to take my clothes off, didn't you? I'd never have thought of a thing like that. Do lots of men like that, I wonder? Isabela says she mostly just wears hers but then she wears so very little in the first place I guess it doesn't so much matter-" Varric gave her an amused half-smile and she flushed again, "and I'm babbling again. I'll stop."

"Just remember, Daisy; a bit of a show can get you a long way." He husked, as she laid back before him, her eyes wide and round as Varric then demonstrated that fact. Slowly – painstakingly so- he peeled her leggings down from her hips. He progressed at a snail's pace, revealing only an inch or two of pale flesh at a time; every now and then, dropping his head to garnish her skin with a soft kiss; gentle caresses that were little more than a brush of soft warm lips and rare, delicate touches of a moist tongue. Leisurely, he continued to expose the milky pale flesh of her thighs; letting his fingers drag over her sensitive surfaces, in soft tantalizing touches that made her want to rub her thighs together again as they caused a hot flood of desire to slip free of her, further dampening her small clothes...

Merrill's eyes grew even rounder and her cheeks burned as she realized the dwarf's proximity. Varric's face was  _right there!_  Inches from her damp sex.  _Oh! Sylaise have mercy! He'll see!_  She pressed her thighs hard together, her face flushing hotly as Varric reached her knees and began to reveal the top of the vallaslin marking her legs. He swung his finger around and began to gently tickle along back of the joint, which made her gasp and press her legs together even tighter, and saw the dwarf looking up along her body, a clearly knowing smirk playing about his lips.

"See what I mean, Daisy?" He husked as he finally pulled the rest of the fabric free with a flourish, and commenced crawling back up the bed, his fingers trailing back up the length of her leg; a teasingly light touch that traced the lines of the blood-writing on her shins then sought out every spot he'd left untouched on her thighs on his way down. When he reached the juncture of her thighs, however, he swung that hand inward and grazed it over her soaking wet mound. "It can be a good way to get things...  _flowing._ " He finished, as she blushed hotly all the way to the tips of her ears to see the glistening slick his finger had collected, even  _through_  the fabric of her smalls.

When he casually licked that shining wetness with a deliberate swipe of his wide tongue however, Merrill's  _whole body_  had flushed perfectly pink at the implication.

 _'_ _W_ _ould you like me to return the favor?'_ Anders' words to Hawke after she'd put her mouth on him in the field, came roaring back into Merrill's mind and she found herself trembling all over at the idea that Varric might do such a thing to  _her_. She didn't know whether the idea excited or terrified her more, but the thought of that clever tongue doing things like it had done to her mouth -only down  _there_...

A violent shuddering ran through her and she almost fell into a real panic over the idea when Varric -very kindly- distracted her from such thoughts by the simple expedience of removing his shirt.

Merrill's eyes and mind were instantly riveted -no room left for panic- by the sight of his chest and shoulders as he'd laid them bare for her. The sheer amount of hard musculature he normally kept hidden was rather...  _inspiring_. Her eyes wandered over him in a decidedly dreamy sort of fashion as she took-in the view. She'd always known his arms were strong, considering the way he swung Bianca about as though she weighed no more than a feather. The crossbow wasn't light; Merrill had tried lifting her once, when she'd thought Varric wasn't looking – she'd fallen over sideways the moment she'd managed it.

The strength in those brawny arms easily translated to his equally brawny shoulders, which were round with healthy hard muscle, the sight of which made Merrill bite her lip with want. Her eyes followed the swell and curve of those shoulders down to the equally impressive swell and curve of his chest, then down further to the hard cut lines along his ribs and stomach; all put together it was _very_  easy on the eyes.

The thing that really caught -and  _held-_  Merrill's attention, however, was the hair that seemed to bestrew his every inch. It was sparser in some places -only a light smattering over his ribs, upper arms and shoulders- and heavier in others, such as his forearms and core. His stomach was covered; a light dusting along his sides that grew steadily darker and denser the closer the eye drew toward his center, until it merged into the thick, pelt-like covering of his chest hair, as it poured down toward his belt line. That dense line of hair reached its narrowest point just above the deep dimple of his navel, but Merrill could see that it widened out again just as it dipped below the waist of his breeches.

The sight of all that coppery hair was fascinating to her; something she'd never really taken into account before. She'd always _known_  that dwarves and humans had body hair -she'd even known that dwarves, supposedly, had more of it- and, of course, she'd always been aware of Varric's chest hair. Rather hard not to be, considering he walked about with it falling out his shirt the way it did. Varric was every bit as proud of his chest hair as Isabela was of her breasts; and he showed it off in much the same manner. However, Merrill had never really comprehended what that had implied about what the  _rest_  of the dwarf's body would look like. She was suddenly struck with an overwhelming urge to touch it. To reach out and stroke, and see if it  _felt_  as silky as it looked. Her fingers curled in to the heavy velveteen quilt beneath her, as she tried to prevent herself from impulsively doing just that.

 _Well that's silly! Why shouldn't I touch it?_  She thought as the reality of the situation and her actions hit her.  _This-_ _this_ was happening. Varric was going to make love to her – touch every inch of her; had  _already_  touched so much. Why should she not do the same? Reach out and touch him as he had touched her. Explore, with her own hands, and learn the feel of him. Come to know the sensation of hard cut muscle covered with all that glossy hair as it ran under her fingertips. Deliberately, she sat up a little straighter and brought her hand forward; clearly signaling her intention, in case she was about to do something wrong again.

"Might I-" she asked, her eyes never leaving the sight of his naked chest. "Might I touch?"

A husky chuckle met her ears before he went on to say, "Touching is rather the object of the game, Daisy."

Varric remained still, kneeling part way down the bed at about the level of her hips; letting her come to him.

This, then was the 'make or break' moment, he figured. Elves could be dicey when it came to body hair, something about their natural lack of it. Some of them went crazy for the stuff; others were a little horrified by it. Varric honestly couldn't guess which way Daisy was gonna swing. He'd never caught her eyeing up his chest-hair with that hungry covetous look he got from the ones he knew were wild for it; but she didn't shudder or wrinkle her nose when he and the Rivaini started mock flirting over it, either.

The moment her fingers came into contact with it though, it was instantly clear; she was gonna belong to the former category.

"Ohhh! It's softer than I thought it'd be." She chirped, shuffling closer and eagerly running her hands over every inch of him that she could see, marveling at how all that hair felt beneath her fingertips. Her tits bounced and swayed as she moved toward him, so that Varric found himself more than half distracted by the sight and was only distantly aware of those small hands as they ran over his chest, abs and shoulders.

When those small questing fingers brushed over his dangerously sensitive sides, unintentionally teasing over a ticklish spot and calling forth a nervous chuckle, he managed to drag his focus back out of nothing more than a basic sense of self preservation. Having Daisy, with her inability to keep things to herself, learn that he was ticklish seemed like a less than stellar idea. He granted her a bit more time to satisfy her need to pet at him like he was some sort of enormous cat, but he knew he couldn't hold out for long. His own fingers had already started to twitch with the need to feel her too; all that smooth ivory skin glowing in the dim light, and those  _tits,_  swaying with her every move.

It was too much temptation.

He reached for her and drew her nearer, pressing her slender frame close and tilting his head back as he pulled her mouth down for another kiss. He let the hand he used to drag her head down to his, wander once she was fully engaged in the kiss, letting his fingers trace up the length of her ear, and making her gasp into his mouth with each delighted little shiver the movement called forth. It distracted her from his other hand as it crept up along her side and snuck a gentle squeeze in one of those lush tits squashed hard against his chest, which made him moan at the plush, firm feel.

Varric's attention to her ears soon saw Merrill's nipples pebbling and drawing so tight they ached for any attention that might offer them some relief. She pressed into the warmth of Varric's chest in a vain effort to soothe them, only to discover his chest hair -smooth yet stiff- provided a whole new level of teasing torment. She whimpered into his mouth and pressed herself even deeper into him when his hand gently squeezed the side but made no move to touch her aching points. Granted, perhaps he would have been more likely to try if she'd just been able to find the will to pull back and offer something more like  _access_ ; but her body was dictating a  _need_  for closeness that her mind only managed to short circuit when her wanton pressing found her encountering something else. Something  _very_ hard, and very  _thick,_ digging insistently into her thighs.

Startled, she pulled back and glanced down between them.

Again words failed her and the only thing that could escape her was yet another quiet exclamation; though this time she expanded upon her _'Oh'_  with a -much more eloquent-  _'Oh my.'_

"You just noticing that now, Daisy? Its been here for a while, you know." He told her with a quiet laugh. Her hands skated down over his chest and abdomen, hesitating only briefly at the waist of his breeches before she bolstered her initiative and let it slide down further over the hard length pressing out and up from within the confines of his clothes. The dwarf hissed through his teeth at the contact of her startlingly warm hand, warm enough to be felt through the thin leather of his pants and his smalls below.

For a virgin, she actually seemed to have a pretty firm grasp of just what she needed to do with that warm little hand. The way she gripped him through the intervening material and rubbed along his length, left Varric wondering just  _exactly_  what-all she had seen Hawke and Anders get up to out on that picnic of theirs.

Maker's Breath, it had been  _way_  too fuckin' long since he'd done this, if a virgin's 'rub and tug' through his trousers felt this fucking incredible.

"You know, Daisy." He managed, though his voice sounded suspiciously strained to his own ears, like he was gonna start panting at any moment if she kept it up. "It's easier when there aren't two layers of fabric between you and it. Not that you're not taking an impressive run at it like this."

"Right. I should stop. Right? So you can take the rest of your clothes off. Or would you like me to take them off? Like you did with mine, I mean? Only... I don't think I could do it like you did. I don't think I could do it all sexy and I'd probably get them tangled up or... Oh I'd just make a mess of it. Merciful Creators, listen to me! I'm babbling again, aren't I? I'll stop now- talking that is. And touching. I just... well, I wasn't expecting it to feel so… so...  _hard,_  I suppose."

"Again, rather the point, Babycakes." Varric said, swallowing a smile; the elf really was adorable when she got like that. He didn't waste any time shucking the last of his clothes; unbuckling the belt, and shedding his breeches and smalls in a single fluid motion, and carelessly kicking them in a tangle from the bed. When he looked up it was to see the little Dalish elf looking at him with wide, and suddenly nervous, eyes.

Merrill swallowed nervously, at the sight of him. _I know I was feeling empty, and all but…_

"That is  _very_... wide." She gulped before darting a look up at him a little wearily. "Does that really go inside?" She asked -almost pleaded- not entirely able to keep the nervous apprehension from her voice as the pleasant little butterflies in her stomach suddenly turned into a belly full of panicked frogs.

"Don't worry, Daisy, I'll take good care of you. We'll go nice and slow until you're good and ready for it." He gently reassured her, meaning every word of it, after all if he was gonna be breaking in a virgin, he was gonna do the job  _right_. In short, that meant taking his time and going slow with her, no matter his own aching want or desire to speed things up. Politely, he once again waited until she came to him, stoutly refusing to press her despite the fact that he was  _genuinely_ starting to  _ache_  for want of really getting his hands on her, or -more accurately- getting hers on  _him_.

Cautiously, she closed the distance between them, and once again her hand came from above; apparently she needed the run up of trailing her fingers over his body before she was comfortable with touching him properly. He was, perhaps, more than just a little  _eager_ by this point -all that shuffling back and forth on the bed causing her tits to put on quite the show, one which Varric was  _thoroughly_  enjoying- so really, there was nothing he could have done to stop his cock from jumping with excitement the moment her hot little hand brushed over him. Unfortunately, by that point, the poor kid was so high-strung on arousal, and nerves -not to mention a mug of rapidly consumed ale- that the sudden unexpected twitch of his cock startled her more than half out of her skin. The shock was such that it saw her lurch over backwards, laughing nervously as she all but scrambled backwards up the bed.

"Oh! It moves!" Came the half-yelped exclamation as she tumbled back onto his pillows. This response turned out to be simply too much for Varric and, try as he might, he genuinely couldn't swallow his laughter; nor, could he resist teasing her a bit once he'd calmed down some.

"Oh, it does a whole lot more than just  _move,_  Daisy" He said with a wink and a suggestive grin. It turned out to be the right move. His return to his more normal irrepressible humor saw the elf giggling and seemed to help put her a little more at ease, again; she was still curled up at the head of his bed like and nervous cat, though. He opted to take advantage of her being all tucked up at the head of his bed like that, to progress things where he could, and tugged his coverlet out from under her; folding it back and inviting her to join him down on the now exposed expanse of his goldenrod satin sheets.

"Come here beautiful, I wanna kiss you some more." He coaxed, patting the cool sheets invitingly. Of course, he didn't mention that he was hoping to kiss her in several  _new_  places: he really didn't think that would have been the wisest course of action considering she'd suddenly turned skittish and kept eyeing his cock like it was a snake waiting to strike. Everything about her posture shouted at him of her sudden anxiety and a need to take things slow. Naturally, she  _would_  rediscover her restraint and shyness the moment he was positively  _salivating_  to wrap his lips around one of those lovely pert nipples, which crowned those playful little tits of hers; and never mind that the taste of her he'd licked form fingers -which still lingered tantalizingly on his tongue- had left him positively parched and dying of a carnal, primal thirst to have another sip straight from the source.

The temptation to act on  _that_  desire - _right now!-_  was not something easily ignored.

 _Easy, Varric, one step at a time. She may not have been acting like any virgin you've ever had before, but she still_ is _one, and she's certainly acting the part now._ He chided himself, mentally smacking away the flood of images his too vivid imagination eagerly supplied him with of himself drinking her sweet nectar with reckless abandon.  _Go slow and ease her into it._  He reminded himself – a bit more forcefully- that what he played at now was a stalking game, and he needed to remember that. After all, it wasn't as though he wasn't definitely gonna get his mouth on her tender little mound -absolutely no doubt about it- it was his best trick when it was all said and done, and an essential part of any cherry picking so far as he was concerned.

But that was neither here, nor there; right now, those tits of hers had a date with his lips and her smalls had a date with the floor. Once she was as naked as he was and lost to the pleasure of the moment again,  _then_  he could start thinking about tasting the rest of her.

Hesitantly, Merrill slid herself down atop the newly revealed, crisp heavy satin sheets, feeling her skin pebble with goose flesh as it chilled her oversensitive nerves; the cool feel making the desperate aching in her nipples all that much more unbearable. She was getting desperate enough by that point that if Varric didn't do  _something_  with them soon, she was going to start touching them herself; she'd have been doing so already but she wasn't entirely sure if that wasn't something a partner might find offensive.

And if the need of her breast was bad... then the distressed  _aching_  state of her quim didn't even bare thinking about.  _By the_ _D_ _read_ _W_ _olf, I do hope he's pla_ _n_ _ning to do more than just kissing!_ _N_ _ot that, that's not lovely and all- he_ _'s_ _is very good at it... it's just – Oh, I ache!_  she thought, but then her eyes sunk down to his thick, erect length where it jutted out from a tangled nest of light brown curls, and -aching need or no- her nervous apprehension returned with a lurch.

 _Oh just s_ _t_ _o_ _p staring, Merrill!_ _I_ _t_ _'s_ _not goin_ _g_ _t_ _o eat you or anything._  She scolded herself when she caught the dwarf smirking at her preoccupation with his prick.

Seemingly tired of waiting for her to finish creeping down the bed to him, he casually wrapped a hand around his length and set about stroking himself lazily. The sight made her tummy flop in a similarly lazy fashion. The sensation was not dissimilar to how it had flopped and danced when she had been watching Anders and Hawke; and she swallowed hard as the memory of Hawke's lips stretched around the healer's length once more took root in her mind, which her mind immediately turned to wondering what it would feel like to do so with Varric. Wondering, if the faces Varric might make would be anywhere near as exciting and erotic as those she'd witnessed on Anders.

"Oh, now that's a look. What are you thinking about in that funny little head of yours, now Daisy?" Varric asked, as her hesitance to close the gap between them finally seemed to break the dwarf's considerable patience, and he left off his stroking that he might reach out and grab her by the ankles; simply hauling her down the bed with an easy strength that was still startling to the little mage -she squeaked in surprise when he did it- despite the visual evidence of his arms and core. She felt her cheeks and ears go from warm to astoundingly hot, as she tried to formulate her answer; and she found herself looking down at the bed for fear of looking anywhere else, when she finally found the words.

"Just something Hawke did this afternoon..." She muttered picking at the sheets while she risked only a quick peek up at the dwarf's face through the cover of her lashes "with her... mouth. I suppose I was just wondering, you know, what it would b-"

"Okay. I'm gonna stop you right there, Daisy, 'cause that's one thing that ain't gonna happen this evening." He told her with a finger hastily placed over her lips to quell any protests that might pop into her head; preventing them from simply tumbling out her lips. "Look at it this way; it's  _Maiden's_  Eve. And this thing here?" he said gesturing to the small space he'd left between them "This is supposed to be about  _you_. So tonight,  _mine_  will be the only mouth going anywhere south of the border." He left Merrill no time to consider the promised implication of his words before his lips once again came forward to meet her own. He stayed there for only a moment, before he began kissing his way down her jaw, revisiting the path he'd taken to get to her ear before.

Merrill was immediately torn between conflicting wants. On the one hand her swelling breast was an aching desperate torment to her, but on the other, she really didn't want to risk distracting him if he intended to do that thing with her ears again because she'd  _really_  liked that too. His warm, and surprisingly soft, hand came to rest upon her stomach and made her entire body jump when she remembered where that hand had been only moments before. Her stomach rolled in that torturous - _wonderful_ \- way as the image of him lying on the bed, his hand unconcernedly rubbing up and over the length of his manhood swam before her mind's eye. He'd clearly had no issue with touching himself in front of her... perhaps it might be more acceptable than she'd originally feared?

Her need to touch had become unbearable. Perhaps...

She bit her lip nervously then asked, "Varric, It's not- It wouldn't be rude, would it? If I were to touch myself, that is?" He stilled, lips pressed against the hinge of her jaw before he chuckled, sending puffs of his hot, moist breath over her overly sensitive skin.

"No. Definitely,  _not_  rude." The hand on her stomach slid to her side and up until she felt his stout fingers gently take a hold of her wrist. "Very considerate under these circumstances, in fact." His lips had reached her ear, and he licked and tasted his way along the length to the point. Upon reaching the tip, he drew it into his mouth, sucking gently, and rolling his tongue along the cusp in a way that made her eyes cross with pleasure. Merrill loosed a soft breathy cry as he worked, hardly noticing his slow continued guidance of her hand as it traveled over her own skin.

From the moment he lead her fingers to ghost over the swell of one breast -his hand lying a top hers, his stout fingers filling the gaps between her own- her focus was utterly riveted upon their interwoven digits and the actions he was encouraging her to take with him. Leisurely, he guided her hand up further in a tender caress, until her fingers lay over one aching nipple. "Show me what you like, Daisy." His breath washed over her trembling and shuddering ear, but it was his  _words_  that saw a deep shiver run through her.

Varric slipped down along her body, tongue and lips brushing against her neck and collar bones as he untangled his hand from hers; offering her carte-blanche to do as she pleased with it now that it was where he wanted it. She brushed her finger over the aching tender peak with a soft sigh that turned into a startled gasp when Varric mimicked the move on her other breast... with his tongue. Startled, she gasped in shock, her fingers tightening and grasping over that same nipple, only to feel him again replicate her actions, his mouth closing down over her tender point; a hot wet trap, closing over her, soothing away the ache while putting just enough pressure on to send a feeling like lightening racing under the surface of her skin.

The wash of sensation it caused left her breathless and wanting and cut her adrift for the moment. When she next opened her eyes, searching for him in the semi gloom of the room, needing to find an anchor outside of herself; the sight of his mouth battened onto her breast like it was -his own eyes closed and an expression of undeniable enjoyment shaping his heavy features- instead, sent a flood of ardent heat surging through her loins. It was a feeling that was both familiar and yet so fundamentally  _different_  and more erotic than anything she'd ever known and she couldn't help but whimper with excitement. The dwarf's eyes opened at the sound and he blinked up at her, his copper gaze capturing and holding her wide eyed ivy stare; she could  _feel_ , as much as see, the small twitch of his lips against her as he smirked up at her, eyes full of sparking challenge and mischief, before he pointedly moved his gaze back to her fingers.

Merrill bit her lip in a giddy sort of anticipation as she caught onto the game he was playing. She tightened her grip and Varric sucked her in deeper; rolling his tongue when she rolled her fingers. For the next while it was a game of shadows between them; her actions directing  _his_  every move. He released when she did, feathered his tongue when her touch was light and teasing, drew her in deep and suckled when she pressed and kneaded at the whole, and nipped gently whenever she pinched or tweaked her own flesh -hungry to feel that fiery rush fly beneath her skin. For each move she made, Varric had an answer; but by the very nature of his attentions being supplied by the warm touch of tongue, teeth, and lips they were so much more. It meant that every sensation he graced her with was a dozen times more intense than any her virgin breast had known before.

Varric relished her every reaction: the taste of her skin on his lips and the way she arched and writhed beneath his tongue. She'd caught on to his little game quicker than he'd thought she would, and led him a merry chase keeping up with her; but the reward was well worth the effort. He'd already gotten the feel of her; her wants and desires having formed a pattern in his mind. Turned out, Daisy was the type of girl to savor a long slow burn; she liked to be rolled through the deeper sensations and only briefly - _climatically_ \- shocked with the higher intensity tricks.

Her tits were wonderful -even better than he'd imagined, considering their unprecedented responsiveness- and he'd have been quite happy to lavish attention upon them all evening; but there was a goal as yet unmet, and his cock had been nagging him for want of more for a while by that point. The hand he'd used to guide her own to her breast had thus far been occupied mapping soothing circular tracks along her taught little tummy, enjoying the way her muscles bunched and grew taut beneath the skin each time he pushed the tit-play a little harder. Now, however, he wanted to move on and so slowly he began sending that circling touch gradually lower and lower with each pass until his questing fingers encountered the strings which tied her smallclothes shut. It was the work of seconds for him to see the knots loose and the damp fabric was whisked clear before she'd even had a chance to notice his intent.

He then trailed his fingers back up along her side to collect her hand once more and encouraged it to abandon that breast before he sent it on a journey south to her nethers. She hesitated, balking at the last second, her fingers tugging back in his grip for a fraction of a moment when she caught on to where he was leading her; just  _exactly_  what he was asking her to do.

"Varric?" her voice was small and breathy and - _adorably-_ uncertain.

"If you'd rather not Sweetheart, that's fine." He murmured as he sat up a bit so that he could kiss his way across the valley of her chest, "But like I said, a little show goes and long way. I wanna see what it takes to make you  _cum_  Babycakes." He husked, before he battened onto the nipple which had just been playing host to her hand.

Merrill felt him press upon her as he covered her body with his own; his torso angled across her own, his mouth at her breast his knees against her hip, his hand braced upon the bed by her ribs. The resultant posture saw that he came to rest over and against her while supporting himself enough so as not to crush her under stones worth of dwarven muscle. She could, never the less,  _f_ _eel_  the solid weight of him and found it oddly comforting. It also meant that she didn't have to -more like,  _c_ _ouldn't_ \- see her own hand as she dipped it between her embarrassingly wet folds to find her own pleasure. She wouldn't have wanted to admit it, but she had been overwhelmingly eager to find her release again for some time; and, despite the burning blush upon her cheeks for the thought of doing something like  _that_  in front of Varric, she was, however, more than willing to do so if it would offer her relief from the ever tightening wellspring of torment the dwarf and her own mind had wound to an aching unbearable tension within her.

Varric let his mouth and hand to work off instinct as he peered down between their bodies; his eyes latched onto the pale tattooed hand as it sunk down between creamy thighs, parted for slender fingers to slide between folds that shone wetly with her arousal in the dim light. He wasn't normally that voyeuristic by nature – though he was coming to suspect that such a thing might be one of  _Daisy's_  kinks, considering her reaction to watching him stroke himself earlier – but he was more than passingly interested in discovering how Daisy liked to take her pleasure. He was curious whether she was one those girls who liked to slide her fingers home... or if she preferred focus solely on her clit; after all, Varric was a storyteller, and as any good tale-spinner knew -good research was vital before embarking on a new endeavor. So he watched for where those fingers would settle, so he would know where to put his own focus when it came up  _his_  turn to dip his digits. Either way, -whether she turned out to be a ' _diddler_ ' or a ' _dunker_ '- he suspected she was gonna be a soft touch at it, based on how she liked her breast to be treated; but then her hand started to move and Varric was shocked at the near frenzied pace she set.

It took less than a minute of hard pressure to see her tremble slightly beneath him -a quiet sigh of contentment slipping passed her parted lips- and the job was - _apparently_ \- done.

 _Well that won't do at all_. He thought as her hand fell away from her center to lay limply at her side; her breathing already returning to level in the aftermath. Again, Varric was struck by Daisy's rather prosaic views on sex and pleasure. That had -without a doubt-been the most  _perfunctory_  version of female masturbation Varric had even seen; all about getting on with the business of orgasm. She'd barely seemed to have taken any actual pleasure or enjoyment from it at all. Really, it was no wonder she'd not been able to see herself sated after getting properly hot and bothered out there on the Coast; and considering the...  _aggressive_  nature of what he'd just witnessed, Varric certainly wasn't surprised it the least that she'd feared being raw if she kept at it.

Right. Well,  _he_  certainly wasn't gonna imitate  _that_. Obviously that Keeper of hers had skipped out on the really  _important_  life lessons, and it looked like it was up to Varric to fill in the blanks. Fortunately, he was an excellent teacher.

Slowly, he eased back until his weight once again rested mostly on his knees and let his hand slide toward her legs, taking the place left vacant by her own. He didn't quite manage to swallow his groan of anticipation when his fingers glided into the crease of her sex and were immediately enveloped in a torrent of hot slick.  _Maker_ _'s_ _breath!_ _I_ _f_ _she_ _'s_ _this we_ _t_ _up top..._  his thoughts drifted off and he couldn't help but slide his fingers lower until they encountered her entrance which -sure enough- was so wet he could have easily drowned in it.

From the head of the bed he heard a river of elvhen spill from Daisy's lips as she got her first taste of being - _really-_  touched by foreign hands. He circled her entrance for a moment, biting his lip, sorely tempted to slide his fingers properly into those wet depths; it took a real effort but eventually he managed to shake off the urge and brought his fingers back to shallower waters.

By this point in the evening, Daisy's arousal was such that there was no  _searching_  to find her clit. The small bead of nerves was swollen and hard enough that he could actually feel it throb beneath his sensitive lock-picking fingers; and that single touch was enough to see Daisy arching dramatically up off the bed, her legs clamping shut around his hand like a vice as a startled whine of protest was forced from her throat at the overwhelming stimulation.

"Shhhh. It's okay Daisy." He soothed, stretching up to place a chaste kiss along the underside of her jaw. Gently -but firmly- he hooked his leg over hers, and pulled her thighs apart again. "I got you, Babycakes. We'll go nice and slow, I promise. Just relax, and let me work  _my_  magic."

She whimpered and he could feel the trembling throughout her whole body, but with one leg now trapped snuggly between his own powerful thighs, she seemed to have recognized the futility of maintaining her rigid tension. Varric, eager to encourage her down that path, once again wrapped his tongue and lips around the tip of one heaving breast; suckling the stiff peak with gentle care until all her muscles were once again soft and pliant under his touch.

Only after she was once again lying limp and open for him, did Varric carefully begin to move his fingers once more. He studiously, avoided her over sensitive – marginally abused- clit, instead choosing to work the nerves either side of it; carefully positioning his index and middle fingers just next to it on opposite sides and moving them in small gentle - _deliberate_ \- stroking caresses. His movements were tiny, the pressure behind them almost none existent... The effect, however, was powerful -a slow warming of  _every_  nerve in Merrill's body.

Merrill soon found herself panting as that slow fire Varric was building, unfurled within her; blossoming as the morning glory flower, opening its petals to the first rays of the dawn. It was an incredible feeling and she was already gasping for breath at the slow way he was leading her down this path. It was a path she'd walked alone a hundred times before and yet which looked entirely different with Varric there as her guide. He carefully coaxed her higher up upon those bluffs than she'd ever dared go before, never once tipping his hand and making her feel the need to slam her legs shut in order to protect herself form that vicious over-stimulation.

He lead her up a winding path towards a distant cliff she could barely see on the horizon of her mind, but the fire was growing hotter by the moment and soon Merrill felt his pace increasing. Her breath caught in a quite sob at that moment of perfection when he sped his stroking and took that slow spreading warmth and turned it into a white hot blanket of scorching fire just under her skin. Distantly, she marveled at his uncanny ability to know the perfect moment to act, just before she cracked, until she realized that  _he_  was no longer alone in setting their pace; her hips had started to move of their own accord and that she had begun to grind into his hand, unable to maintain that rigid stillness as the fire burned brighter. He'd turned that single spot at her center into a blazing hot inferno no bigger than a solitary coal that was too hot to bear thinking of, and it called forth sympathetic flames of heat to lick along the palms of her hands, the soles of her feet, and every inch of skin in between.

It grew hotter and hotter until she was desperate to see it quenched. Her toes curled with it and at some point her hands had found the way back to him one curled and tangled in his hair while the other clutched at Varric's wrist just above her sex, like it was the only thing tying her to the living waking world.

Inch by creeping inch, the fire spread as Varric's talented fingers strummed her like a fine tuned lute; gently - _maddeningly so_ \- moving her towards the height of her peak. She was gasping with need, dragging in rattling shuddering breaths as she fought to achieve the release she knew was just over the crest where she would at last be able to leap and surrender to the feelings. Yet it still felt so staggeringly far and Varric was like a stone weighing her down - _hold_ _ing_ _her back_ \- and forcing her to savor the journey even though all she craved – all she  _cared_ for _-_ was the destination.

Then he changed his movements; twisting his nimble fingers so that they circled around her pleasure at a faster clip, though his touch was still agonizingly light and she began to moan and sob for more. Heedless cries fell from her lips in a babbling stream of whimpering desperate mewling, and shameless pleading. Her hips rocked faster under his hands, as yet unable to push past his restraining hold to better find the rhythm she required to find her climax.

It was torturous.

"Varric, please!" Her voice cracked under her raw need, and finally the dwarf relented; releasing her leg from where he'd held it trapped all this time between his own and - _at last_ \- adding the pressure she  _needed_  to see it done behind his touch. Adding a touch of his thumb, brushing lightly over the small knot of her nub and sending a swell of pleasure arcing through her on every pass.

That was the thing that saw her charging towards the brink, her every muscle twitching and trembling as she strained to hold her balance lest she trip over her own desperation and throw herself off course, leaving all that pent-up tension and heat unclaimed and unspent. She wanted to beg again, but her tongue was heavy and clumsy in her mouth, capable of nothing beyond the most rudimentary - _animalistic_ \- keening as she flew towards her climax. It was so close that she could taste it on her tongue and smell it in the air as she wept for deliverance.

She was hovering on the very edge of an orgasm unlike any she'd ever known. Something so far removed from the paltry little 'climaxes' -if they even could be called such- she'd given herself of the years that it almost comically tragic. She needed to see this though to its end, like she needed air to breathe; to feel that fire as it exploded thorough her and devoured her every inch.

To dive from that precarious edge and plunge into the cool waters below.

She  _want_ _ed_  to beg, but the words had abandoned her. The common tongue, the elvhen speech, none of it existed within her. She had nothing left, as the fire raged and burned through her mind, leaving no room for thought or knowledge. She was nothing but pure unbridled sensation and she would die from it if it didn't end soon.

Then Varric leaned up, head tilting back, his lips just below her ear; hot breath pouring out over the sensitive lobe and spoke in a voice like honey. Three words that hurled her over the brink.

"Cum for me."

For a moment everything was perfectly still and Merrill hung weightlessly over the abyss...

Then it all came crashing down.

Her stomach lurched and the fire under her skin roared as she plummeted over the cliffs; free falling into the turbulent seas of her orgasm; praying for rescue even as she reveled in the thrill of the drop.

Varric caught her; his thick strong arms, wrapping tight around her as she trembled through the first of the aftershocks. Gently, he pressed his lips against her cheek as he soothed her down from the high as his strong grip fended off the tremors that continued to plague her in the sudden crash. She curled into him, his solid presence the only thing she cared about in the whole world just then, a fact he seemed to understand as his hands pulled her closer still; dragging her down the bed until her face was buried in his chest, and his lips were pressed against her hair.

"Varric..."

"Shhhhhh." He soothed, "You rest for a bit now, Daisy, I got you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I know. I'm sorry! But don't worry! The rest is on the way, and the wait shan't be crazy long this time, I promise! Chapter 3 is already entirely written and just being edited and beta'd before being posted.
> 
> In the mean time... /please/ comment & review! This story has received so very little love and it makes me sad :( . So let me know what you think yeah? Heck you can even just yell at me for making you all wait for so long, I won't mind! Just let me know that you're reading and that /someone/ out there is enjoying this!
> 
> As always, a great big shout out to the ladies of the 'DA Writers & Reviewers Group' for cheer leading like no others! As well as huge thank you to all you lovelies who beta'd this chapter and made it readable ([MRTL85](http://archiveofourown.org/users/MRTL85), Tuon, [Enchant](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Enchant) and [Hatsepsut](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Hatsepsut)!) as well as to my darling, who very graciously gave his time to give this its first once over. I love you so~ much, babe


	3. Plucked

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Wow. Okay so yeah, late again. Apologies. Turns out having your back out and being consistently nauseous during your most productive writing hours really doesn't help with the whole 'get things posted in a reasonable span of time' thing... But here it is at last! Hope you all enjoy it!
> 
> Warnings: OH GAWD THIS IS SAPPY... I apologize profusely. Hotter than the seventh circle of hell, but all mushy and romantical too (I am exceedingly nervous about that fact). Elsewhere in this chapter you can look forward to experiencing a lingering look at cunnilingus, as well as officially breaking open Merrill's maiden-head... along with the destruction of every last scrap of patience Varric ever had in eight lives.
> 
> Bon appetite!

**Chapter 3**

**Plucked**

For a time -she wasn't entirely certain just how long exactly, it felt like ages, but was probably less than a few minutes- Merrill simply lay on the bed, panting and gasping for air, curled tight into Varric's solidness. She relaxed slowly, loosening her vine like grip on the dwarf, and uncurling as the aftershocks diminished, allowing him to prop himself up on an elbow as she rolled onto her back attempting to take something more like proper breaths. Varric smiled down at her, those amazing fingers combing thought the short braids at her crown, his eyes aglow with their usual good humor, but also alight with something else. Merrill tried to focus on the spark of something  _other_  as her vision returned to normal; it was a look that seemed odd and foreign in his eyes, and yet it was still somehow oddly...  _familiar_ ; as though Merrill was actually accustomed to seeing it -just not  _t_ _here,_  notin  _his_  eyes.

_Isabela._

The name floated disjointedly through her mind and it took her a moment to recognize it as the answer she was looking for. The look in Varric's eyes -the one hiding behind that laughing good humor- was the same look Merrill saw the pirate wear so often and openly in the presence of anyone she coveted. It was the look of unfettered lust and the sight of it in  _Varric's_  eyes was almost enough to see her cumming again; it was certainly enough to renew the shivering aftershocks trembling through her.

It took her a few minutes more to find her tongue after that.

"Varric! That was...  _incredible_! Why hasn't it ever felt like that  _before_?" The words came out haltingly; broken and gasping and Varric chuckled softly as his fingers drew lazy patterns over her stomach.

"Probably because you've been rushin' it a bit there, Beautiful. This sort of thing isn't a race to the finish or a simple slip of the  _thumb_. You can't really appreciate the fall if you don't spend some time looking over the edge first."

"Oh." Came her quiet, reflective response.

Varric smiled and watched as her breathing slowly steadied to a more even pace looking for the moment when her blood was just calm, before she grew drowsy. When he thought she was there he leaned down and kissed her again, taking the opportunity to discreetly press himself against her; trying to soothe his aching cock in any way he could.

He knew she wasn't ready yet, she was -after all- an elf, and he a dwarf and the disparity in their size alone would have been enough of an issue if Daisy hadn't been a virgin. Considering that she was... Logically, Varric  _knew_  if he rushed things he could -no  _would_ \- end up hurting her, but damn if that wasn't a hard fact to keep in mind with his prick throbbing with frustrated need and trying to convince him she could take it.

"You ready for some more, Sweetheart?" He murmured against her lips, chuckling when she nodded enthusiastically, her hands coming up and wrapping around his neck. That was all the permission he needed and he caught her up about the ribs and rolled the both of them until she was sitting atop him.

Their differences in height meant that she came to rest straddling his lower thighs; which was a damned sight lower than he wanted her, but that fact ended up working in his favor, because now it meant he got to slide her over most of his body to get her where he  _actually_  wanted her.

He sat up a bit and reached down, taking a hold on her hips and pulling her up his body, intent on getting that sweet little cunt over his face with an urgency he didn't care to examine to closely for its intensity.

"Come here, Beautiful. I wanna taste you." He encouraged, as he tugged at her hips; the result of these words was a gush of hot slick over his thighs, and Daisy blushing in a way that was massively telling. After that, the elf -for her part- seemed just as eager as he was as she scooted her way up his body.

They both found themselves rather  _distracted,_ however, when her centre came to rest lined up with this own.

"Shit." Varric gasped as that narrow, and positively  _dripping_ , cleft of her sex ran up the spine of his cock; slicking him with a tantalizing wet heat and making the contrast between his wide cock and her narrow channel almost painfully apparent. The moment served to make it all the more obvious that it was an  _imperative_  he saw her properly prepared before they actually explored this position more intimately, but at the same time...Maker's Balls, it was fucking tempting to just guide her hips up and onto him properly.

Daisy then choosing to press down and rock like she did, wasn't all that helpful on that front, either. Almost choking on the words in a throat thick with want, he told her as much, "Damn it, Daisy! You're not helping." He rumbled as she continued to wriggle over him, positively murdering his self-control with every exquisite little turn of her hips "Now get up here!" He growled and hauled her up over his chest in a single hard movement.

But Merrill had found a new toy and refused to be redirected so easily, despite the feel of his hot breath washing over her sex.

"How wasn't I helping?" she asked, twisting and leaning back to run her hand over his now slicked length, causing the dwarf to groan beneath her. The sound reverberated through his chest and she could feel it intimately as the vibrations tingled against her inner thighs. "If it felt good for me and if felt good for you... how is that not helping, exactly?"

"'Cause a man's only got so much self-control, Sweetheart, and you're tempting me to speed things up rather viciously right now -Fuck!" Merrill giggled to see his head arch back on his neck and to feel his chest heave as he tried to breathe through the stimulation of her hand as she wrapped it around him properly; tightening her grip as she stroked. The posture was very like what she'd seen Anders do when Hawke had been using her mouth, and it sent a powerful thrill coursing through her to see him respond to her touch so readily. It made her want to see and do more; to see if she could make  _him_  come undone.

Varric's fight to maintain control was written all over his face, and if he'd only known how much that was emboldening the little elf, he'd surely have worked harder to hide it; as it was, he was a little too caught up in the moment to be his usual observant self.

"And what's wrong with going a little faster, hmm?" Daisy asked, all innocent like, as she picked up the pace of that hand in a way that saw him cursing again and unconsciously thrusting up into the tight circle made by those delicate little fingers of hers. "If we both want it..."

Damn it! She had a real instinct for this kinda thing; her fingers swiveled in just the right way just as she reached the crown, to hit him in  _exactly_  all the right places. "Because," He finally managed to start, trying to keep his voice as level as possible between the panting breath he had absolutely  _zero_  control over so long as she kept twisting her wrist like that, "You're a virgin, and I could hurt you if we do this thing wrong and rush it." He informed her, "And -Damn it all!- if I'm gonna be the one do it, I'm gonna do it  _right_ , Daisy."

His words caused her hand to stutter to a stop and he cracked one eye open to see her looking down at him with such an open and trusting smile as to make Varric's heart stutter in his chest almost as badly as her hand had.

"I knew you were a good choice." She crooned and then she bent down for a kiss. The angle was awkward as all shit, but she made it work somehow; shifting her hips down his chest only and little, as she kissed him somewhat delirious. She kissed him with an emotion Varric could only describe as 'joy' in every touch and taste of her lips and tongue as they pressed against his own.

When she broke the kiss, and sat up again, Varric was admittedly more than just a little breathless, and it was only partially due to her -essentially negligible- weight on his chest. For a moment -one of those improbable ones that seemed to stretch into eternity while taking up no time at all- they just looked at each other; she smiling happily down at him, and he not entirely certain what had just transpired between them, but recognizing that there had certainly been  _something_.

Then the little elf bit her bottom lip mischievously, and the moment was broken; she gave him a coy half-smile as she once again leaned back, her hand snaking back toward his length; and damn if Varric wasn't about to let her do it to, when-

"Shit!" The startled curse came out first but it was promptly followed by a bark of irrepressible laughter when Daisy's feet squirmed against his sides, tickling him horribly. His hands moved instinctively, automatically reaching to still those wriggling toes before she could really set him off. Daisy's eyes got really round, and her face positivity glowed with the delighted smile which then blossomed into existence.

"Varric, are you  _ticklish_?" She asked, clearly already having guessed the answer as she wiggled her toes again. Right, best be putting an end to  _that_  before things got out of hand; time for a distraction.

"Come here you little minx!" He mock-snarled, as pulled her right the way up to his chin; quickly threading his arms under her knees so he could brace his hand just at the top of her pert little buttocks before her squeal of surprise had, had enough time to devolve into the giggling it inevitably heralded. Now he had her just where he wanted her and he was done playing games. To demonstrate that fact, he tucked his chin and pulled her the last inch up to where he needed her and set to work with his mouth; moaning to get his first solid mouthful of her sweet-earthy flavor.

Merrill's back arched back with a jerk that was entirely outside of her control the moment that hot broad tongue ran over the slick lips of her sex.

_Oh my.._. was the only thought she was capable of forming before her mind came to a screaming halt; her entire world collapsing in on itself until it was focused entirely upon the completely foreign - _and amazing-_  sensations of something so hot and moist -pliant yet strong- parting her folds and intimately introducing itself to her secret places.

When he moaned into her flesh, it felt as though her whole body buzzed with it, and when his tongue brushed over her over-sensitized clit she came on the spot; shuddering and crying out as she collapsed forward toward the headboard, catching herself on trembling arms at the very last moment.

"Too much!" She sobbed out, her hips lifting as she tried to escape his tongue before he could do it again; but Varric's strong hands gripped her tighter and pulled her down again, lapping up the flood of her climax with a hum of approval. For a moment, her heart fluttered frantically, afraid of being hurtled into another body-wracking orgasm and craving it in the same instant, even though he kept her close and his tongue never ceased to move, he nonetheless gave her tender throbbing clit a much needed rest. He tilted her hips and sank down lower until his questing tongue found her entrance and delved deep.

This was every bit as intense as what he'd been doing before but at the same time it was so completely different a feeling it left Merrill reeling and lost; her skin still burning in the wake of that last clitoral orgasm as Varric now set about making her inner being quiver uncontrollably as he drove deep within her. The warm intrusion of his tongue hot against her already scalding flesh, making her cry out and whimper, alternately her hands braced against the headboard, and barely keeping herself from simply collapsing atop him as the sweet feel of his silken tongue inside her made a potent counterpoint to the rough drag of his stubble over her outer folds.

Every so often the dwarf would pull back, and run a long slow swipe right up her cleft; his tongue flat and broad against her womanhood, finishing off by flicking the tip over her clit at the end of his stroke in a move that saw the fire under her skin rekindle with an instant flash of uncompromising heat. Soon, Merrill was nothing more than a trembling, sweating mess above him, every bit as high strung as she had been when it had been his fingers which tormented her.

But this time the sensations were so  _very_  different.

She could still feel that cliff-edge in her mind, but this time instead of the running up the hill to reach it she was instead clinging to the sheer rock face, her muscles aching and quaking with the strain of that unbearable tension building around her core and she was driven up the wall by Varric's wicked and talented tongue. She kept reaching and straining to find that magic moment again when she could let go and tumble into that roaring ocean below her, but strive as she might, the dwarf's slow torment refused to let her loosen her grip and surrender to the free fall. She began to grind down against him, his broad and broken nose just a hair's breadth from where it would have provided her with that extra stimulus she craved.

"Varric!" She pleaded - _sobbed_ \- again, her hands aching where they griped the headboard as she rocked over him. She felt him chuckle into her, moments before that clever tongue was removed. An indignant cry tore passed her lips at its departure before his lips latched onto her clit once more at the same moment as two of his stout, blunt, fingers slid into her; truly breaching her for the first time. The momentary flash of pinching stretching discomfort in her center was instantly drowned out by the flash fire flood of sensation the rogue's lips and tongue sent tearing through her, not so much nudging her over the edge as bodily hurling her into the abyss.

She came screaming; her body bucking against him, and impaling herself further onto those two solid fingers, as they squirmed and stretched her open through her crashing orgasm. As her cries ebbed, her hand flew to her mouth, belatedly trying to stifle her screams, or perhaps she simply craved the press of flesh against her lips. Whatever her reasoning, she soon found her hand smothering her mouth and nose as she tried to find her balance again with Varric continuing to ruthlessly fuck her virgin channel with those talented fingers.

He was uncompromising, his lips and tongue never ceasing to lavish her clit with keen attention, as those heavy, compact digits slid in and out of her sheath; crooking and spreading her as he saw fit. Carefully and patiently, he went about stretching her entrance for the main event in a way that set her hips to rocking above him; leaving her mind and body torn between the desire to press deeper onto his touch and the need to try and escape it.

Varric's cock was straining with a desperate need, but he ruthlessly ignored its insistent cries for attention from behind the little elf's back as he continued to work his fingers into that tight little furrow – deep and slow. He loved the way he could feel her virgin walls trembling and shuddering around his sensitive lock-picking digits; the half smothered cries of pleasure that she couldn't quite muffle behind that hand of hers.

He took his mouth off her at last, looking up along the lithe slender line of her tummy and between those perky glorious tits so see if he could catch a glimpse of her face as she came, encouraging her to do so again by dragging his thumb over her clit at the same time as he crooked his fingers. What small disappointment he might have felt upon seeing nothing more than a long slender stretch of throat and the tiniest glimpse of the underside of her delicate chin as her head lolled back, was nothing when compared to the thrill which shot through him at the sound of her voice as it broke around his name as she desperately cried out toward the heavens.

The taste and scent of her over him, the sound of those pleading uncontrollable cries of pleasure, the way she felt as she moved over his hand and chin, were all conspiring to make him loose his battle of will and focus, and simply fling her down upon the bed and take her as she was.  _But..._  he'd meant what he'd said; he wanted to see this thing done right, and he knew that if he wanted her to enjoy the actual act along with him, she would need to be as loose and receptive as he could make her. She was  _almost_  there; he could feel it in the slight softening of her sheath around his fingers as he set about bringing her off one more time.

_Once more Babycakes, cum one more time for Papa,_  he thought up at her, as his hips began to instinctively rock and buck up into empty air; vainly seeking any kind of relief to the aching tightness in his balls and the throbbing pound of his heavy racing pulse in his prick. Just one more time, and she'd be loose enough to take him; or at least he hoped she would. The feel of her around his fingers, was so incredibly tight and hot, it made his head swim and his cock throb to think about it, and he was actually a dash nervous as to whether she  _could_ take him comfortably.

Again, she came  _hard_ ; the flood of her arousal spilling out over his hand and face as she screamed above him when he crooked his fingers into that hidden spot and kissed her sex one more time, swirling his tongue about her tender nub. Varric groaned raggedly as her sheath clamped down and pulled eagerly at his fingers as she rode out the orgasm.

Then she slumped, her whole body growing loose and soft in the aftermath of another properly overwhelming climax and, to Varric's immense satisfaction, he felt her core loosen its death grip on his fingers. Gently, he withdrew them, dipping his chin so he might slowly lap up some of the mess he'd encouraged her to make. When she was once again still above him, he slowly pushed her back, settling her on his chest, before he smiled up at her, feeling the muscles in his jaw and tongue creak a bit after their time spent pressed tight against her sex.

"Think you're up for the main event now, Beautiful?" He asked innocently when her felt her hips resume rocking over him. She blushed beautifully for him, her breathing still too ragged to be called normal as she nevertheless nodded her head eagerly. Varric untangled his arms from her legs and gently ushered her back along his chest until she was sitting at the very top if his pelvis; his cock nudging eagerly at her back side.

A soon as she was there, Varric pulled her down for another kiss, tilting her hips back so that her cores was exposed to his shaft and reached down behind her so he could line himself up with her sweet heat; pressing his hips up to meet hers with reckless eagerness. He swallowed her first gasp, kissing her soundly before her spine arched hard against the intrusion and she threw her head back; shock painting her features.

"It's okay, Sweetheart, I got you. Just try and relax." He soothed, his hands on her hips encouraging her to press back; his voice already rough and his breath coming in heavy ragged pants at the snug feel of her entrance. "Take your time, Daisy, you're in charge... just breathe through it; we can go as slow as you need..." He managed the words, even managed to sound relatively sincere about them, when all he really wanted her to do was sit on him properly, the faster the better; however, he managed to keep from baring a bare toothed grimace of restraint, only so well.

Merrill froze for that first moment when he started to slip inside her; parting virgin flesh for the first time and pressing into that empty place that had been desperately aching within her since the meadow. Now that Varric was actually angling to fill it, however, she found he had far more to fill her with, than she hand space in need of filling. At least that was how it  _felt,_  based off the aching burn that flared out around the intruding crown of his cock.

She heard Varric's encouraging words below her; words which spoke of going slow and breathing through it, but Merrill was a blood mage and so knew a thing or two about pain. She knew the shallow cut made slowly hurt twice as much as the deep gash slashed quick without thought or warning. When she looked down and saw the quiet look of near desperation on his face, her mind was made up.

She shook her head at his reassurances. "No. fast would be better." She managed, though her voice was small and a little frightened sounding in her own ears. She tried to sit back but her nerves were so overwrought that she couldn't seem to find the courage it would take to force her body passed the pain. She bit her lip and looked down at the dwarf who was holding his breath in anticipation. "Help me, Varric, please."

She saw his adam's apple bob as he swallowed before he nodded, hands shifting their grip on her hips, fingers wrapping snugly about the angle of her pelvis.

"Ready?" He asked, his voice heavy with tension as his grip tightened further. Merrill couldn't find her voice to answer him, instead she closed her eyes tight and offered a curt nod allowing herself only a single breath. He didn't leave her to anticipate it any further. Her head had not even completed the abrupt movement before his hand dragged her down over his length; sheathing himself to the hilt and breaking through her maiden head with an utter lack of finesse.

Their voices mingled in a tangled cry; Varric's a guttural groan of satisfaction while Merrill's was decidedly more a keen of shocked discomfort. She sat trembling atop his broad hips, her legs stretched incredibly wide, and her hands griping the thick hair on his chest like a life line, as she tried to accept the aching burn at her core.

"Shit, but your tight Daisy." Varric panted, his eyes closed and his head thrown back as he sucked in huge volumes of air that saw the elf rising and falling with the movement of his diaphragm. "I'd hoped to have you looser after all that fun we just had. You doin' okay up there, Sweetheart?" He asked, as he finally achieved some level of calm, opening his eyes and beginning to rub soothing little circles on her hips with his thumbs.

"I'm-" she grimaced as her slender frame shook like a leaf atop him, which made Varric shudder in turn; though his was clearly a response to the pleasure as her sheath fluttered and clenched around him again still trying to adjust to his presence inside her. "It's getting better." She panted, "I-it's odd, but it's starting to hurt less."

"Just... take your time, Daisy. We got all night. You go ahead and move when you're good and ready; there's no rush." The dwarf reassured her, before he then closed his eyes and clenched his jaw trying to swallow a groan when her sheath began to pulse and clench over him as she started experimenting with her control of the muscles. "However," He panted closing his eyes against the overwhelming urge to rock his hip up into her, despite his words. "I'd appreciate it if we didn't  _actually_  take all night here... I'm gonna hit my limit soon." He cracked an eye and gave her a mock stern look, "Sooner, if you keep that up, Babycakes."

Merrill looked down just as she intentionally clenched again and was delighted to see the dwarf's eye squeeze shut, the muscles in his jaw and neck all corded and knotting with tension. The sight conjured all those same feeling she had felt back in the thicket watching Anders come undone under Hawke, and again her stomach dropped and rolled in that exciting torturous way, transforming the lingering pain of her first time into something warm and wonderful. Her eyes hungrily devoured his face as she did it again and the groaning moan of want that saw his fingertips biting sharply into her hips.

"Okay, Daisy. Fair warning: if you don't start moving soon I'm gonna skip straight to the end game, roll us over, and hammer you like a fucking smith." This time his look was genuinely stern, his darkened and lust filled gaze brooked no room for argument; held no trace of his usual good humor or teasing spirit.

His words sent another sharp pang of want rolling through her core with the image they conjured in her mind.

"Nothing wrong with that, is there?" She breathed, sucking air in a sharp gasp when his length twitched inside her and she felt her own muscles clamp down -this time involuntarily- again in response. "If you wa-"

"Daisy! Stop talking and  _move_!" He growled his hand dragging her hips forward, then shoving her back as he skillfully rolled his hips. Merrill's eyes popped wide, then hooded; her mouth falling open to from the perfect little 'o' of surprised rapture as she felt his lengthen sliding first out then back into her. Her mind screamed an exultation that this - _this!-_  was what she'd been looking for since that moment she'd first spied upon the others in the meadow and she leaned forward and immediately began to roll her hips in a fair imitation of what he'd just done; swirling his length as she dragged him out before sinking down over him again. The sensation indescribable -unlike anything she'd ever felt- and it saw an uncontrollable keening moan escape her parted lips.

"Fuck me!" Came Varric's hoarsely shouted expletive followed by his groaning hiss of, " _Yes~_ " The deeper register of his voice rumbling through his chest and making Merrill's fingers tingle where they gripped tight to that forest of chest hair. "That's it Babycakes. Feel it out. Find what you like and give it to me. Bloody fuck! But you feel amazing."

Merrill's eyes closed as her head rolled back on her shoulders as she really began to rock and move, her movements quickly picked up speed and a course of sobbing cries passed her lips as she felt the building of an insufferable, inescapable, tension within her. Dimly, she felt Varric's hands move up her sides and slide around to cup her breasts; stout nimble fingers plucking at her ripe, aching buds. He was not careful and gentle about it now as he had been before, in fact the actions he took then would have seen her screaming earlier but now the sensation was so overwhelmed by that terrifying tension in her center that she barely registered the rough and aggressive treatment of the sensitive points.

Then she changed the motion by the merest fraction of an inch and it saw the thick crown dragging mercilessly over a spot inside her -one Varric had only just teased with his fingers- that sent the purest pleasure right through the center of her chest and into the space behind her eyes, setting off a blinding display of sparks as a wild scream was expelled violently from her.

"Again Daisy. Com'on don't quit on me now Beautiful, we're just getting warmed up here." Varric panted, one hand abandoning her chest to reach down and grab a hold of one buttock; fingers digging into the firm round flesh as he dragged her forward at the same angle when she would have stopped to recover her equilibrium. He masterfully kept her right on course as he shifted her with hands and hips; making his cock press deep into that magic spot and again that desperate raucous sound was forced from her throat. At last the fire really caught and all she could think of was the mindless need to feel that wonderful swell of gut rolling pleasure pour into her; again and again. Coming on faster, and faster until she could barely breathe for the mounting pressure.

Her fingers dug into his chest; nails leaving dark scratches behind under that heavy mat of hair as she rocked more frantically; fighting for that moment of perfect tension just before she would break. Again she ascended to the height but this time it was wild and uncontrollable; she felt almost as if she already stood upon the peak as the mountain grew beneath her. The very rock propelling her skyward and making the fall before ever greater. She began to sob and moan and beg of every last one of her gods that the fall come before it grew too great; craving and fearing the abyss-like depth that yawned before her just out of reach as she grew more certain by the moment that should the tension grow any greater that surely she  _must_  shatter apart upon the rocks and crashing waves of her cresting climax.

Her prayers soon ran dry and then there was room for only one name upon her lips. "Varric. Varric. Varric! Varric! VARRIC~!" Her chanting grew steadily louder and more ragged until it escaped her as a shrill outcry; a desperate tattered plea for rescue as she fought the rising wave, terrified of what that swelling rush of raw sensation heralded.

"That's it Sweetheart." He panted below her, his brow slick and shining with sweat as he moved with her, "Let go. Just let go Babycakes, I got you. I'm right here; I'll catch you. Now let go for me." And at last, with his silvery promises of safety ringing in her ears, Merrill let go and tipped over the edge.

**.:xo-DFD-ox:** **.**

Varric gasped and drank in the sight and feel of his little flower as she stilled above him and finally let it happen. Her lips parted and eyes closed tight as she rode through the crest of her climax; her cry of success choking off after only the barest half note had escaped her; the raw power of her orgasm stealing her very voice. Her impossibly tight sheath fluttered and clenched down on him like a crushing trap, as every inch of her ears, face, and chest flushed so deep a red it saw her vallaslin suddenly standing out in sharp pale relief against her cherry-pinked skin.

And damned it didn't all come together to make for the pettiest picture the dwarf had ever seen.

Then the moment was passed and the little elf was collapsing down atop him; panting for breath, her body warm and slick with sweat of her own as her forehead came to rest against the pillows just above his own, leaving Varric's mouth on level with her hammering pulse.

He stretched his neck a bit so that he could wrap his lips over her thrumming pulse; his tongue rubbing along the skin as he licked and sucked almost meditatively, his mind swimming through a thick fog of surprise as his hips gently persisted in rocking up into her, causing her to whimper with every small drag of his cock through her tender entrance.

Mercy but he'd been right on the edge before she came.

Truth be told, he was in a bit of a state of shock over how that had just played out. He hadn't expected her to get  _him_  anywhere near the edge. She was certainly putting shame to every stereotypical view he'd had on virgins before this. But then this thing with Daisy was turning out to be just chalk full of surprises. He had to wonder just where she'd been hiding all that potent sexual sensuality over the years he'd known her, 'cause he'd certainly never have thought that she had so much raw potential. Really, at this point the most surprising thing about this entire scenario was that Varric continued to be surprised when she jumped left instead of right.

Again, his hips came forward and he sucked hard at the flesh of her neck, plenty hard enough to leave a lovely deep kiss bruise on that long slender swan's neck of hers; his actions saw her moan and her walls quivered about him, inviting him in further. He didn't bother to hide the almost pained groan of want that rumbled through his throat.

This proved too much for the elf and she sat back with a little whimpering groan, until his cock was once again buried balls deep in her tight little frame. Varric gasped and bit his lip, his eyes watering as she again took to flexing the muscles of her inner walls around him and making him pray that he could find the strength of will to hold on and see her all the way through another ride like that. But - _Maker!_ \- if she kept toying with him, he was gonna end up popping his cork long before she got there.

He'd just opened his mouth to tell her as much when she leaned forward and rolled her hips, robbing him of all ability to  _think_  let alone speak. She had great muscle memory and found that perfect angle again almost instantly. Which saw Varric cursing, his hand clamping down on her hips in a steely grip again even as it saw her gasping out an almost pained sounding sob before she again collapsed over him.

"I can't!" She gasped, her legs and hips trembling violently under his hands. "Sorry Varric I just... it's too much! I need to -"

But Varric was done playing the gentleman. His balls had been aching with want for longer than he'd  _ever_  let them suffer before, and his need to find his own completion was starting to make  _him_  tremble like an addict Templar, jonesing for a high.

And that little taste she'd just given him drove him right over the edge.

"Fuck it!" He growled. He wrapped an arm around her back and held her close, levering up his hips and body so as to skillfully roll them both over without breaking the contact between them. Once she was beneath him all bets were off. He pulled one slender leg up around his waist and then tossed her other knee over his shoulder, licking along the single swirl of vallaslin that rose above the joint in the reality of his earlier fantasy, knowing he wasn't going to be able to do this slow and tender the way the image had first presented itself to him. At this point he was so far gone -his need  _so_  great- that there was no way this was going to be anything other than a frantic race to the finish.

He reached down and placed her hand on his other shoulder before he leaned over and braced himself against the bed, his nose and mouth hovering right over her tits, but his eyes burning and hot, locked onto the elf's own foggy and blissed gaze. "Hold on to me Babycakes; Papa's gonna take you for a ride."

She obliged him readily, her legs drawing him closer still and her nails scraping across the skin at the nape of his neck before those slender little fingers took a tangled grip in his hair. He hissed at the scraping sting as he pulled back and drove his hips forward in retaliation, making her sob his name as she rippled and clenched around him.

Fuck, but she felt amazing!

Damn, he needed to do this just right or he was gonna blow before he saw her done and that just wasn't acceptable tonight. He wanted to see her cum one more time; see that lovely serene look wash away her worries and cares one last time, before he was willing to call it an evening.

He gritted his teeth against that little voice inside him screaming to simply let go and take his own. That voice that was shouting that they had seen her over the brink a half dozen times already, staving off their own completion tooth and nail in order to do so – it was their  _turn!_

_One more time_ , he told himself,  _just_   _one more time_. He tested his angle, burying himself hard in her on each but taking a solid, steadying breath between, and finding his level ground before doing it again, shifting the angle and position of his hips each time until-

"AhhhhHH!" Her scream was raw and he could hear it shred her throat as it tore out of her and he knew he had it; that spot that had seen her break above him, and now he was gonna use it to  _shatter_  her below him.

"That's it!" He growled, and drew back again then set about laying into her at speed; his hips slamming into her one hard thrust after another, the angle working for him just as much as it was for her. He pounded into her, the force of his thrusts causing her back to arch and sending her whole body rocking from the impact, her tits bouncing beautifully just below his lips. Every time he bottomed out he grunted his satisfaction, a staccato percussive rhythm keeping time with his exertion as she keened a counterpoint, her voice sweeter and more melodic than his own, but every bit as halting and repetitious.

Their voices twined together making a sweet up-tempo song of lust and pleasure as he finally took her as he'd wanted to all night; no longer worrying about whether she would out last him, she was already coming undone beneath him, her joints slackening and her head thrashing, uttering breathless sobs and fervent prayers for deliverance; a deliverance that he was only too happy to give her.

He pressed himself low, catching up her breast in his mouth, as the hand that had been holding her leg over his shoulder traced its way down her thigh then up her side until it could catch a hold of the other. He sucked that decadent pink point ravenously; then she was absolutely rigid below him, screaming herself hoarse as her climax peaked. Varric hummed his satisfaction his eyes rolling up to lock onto her face to savor her expression as he rolled that lovely nipple over his tongue as he kept his own rhythm feeling the orgasm as it spiraled though her.

But he wasn't quite there yet; he closed his eyes again as he forced himself to keep his rhythm on course even as she shuddered and spasmed around him, sending shocks of sensation from his cock straight up his spine.

He felt the tension of his own peak coiling hard and heavy in his gut; his balls drawing up tight in eager preparation of relinquishing their thick and heavy burden. She clung to him, nails leaving scoring marks of fire over his shoulders and back, as she sobbed and begged him to cum for her; almost weeping at the sheer over stimulation of his continued onslaught. But they were past the point of consideration, past the point of his coddling her, he just continued to hunt down that moment when everything would be perfect and he could let himself fall as he'd lead her to do all evening.

" _Varric._ " Something in Daisy's voice made him open his eyes again; the soft trembling sound of his name as it escaped her lips.

And it was at that moment that he realized he'd never been with a mage before.

Her magic was all around them; caressing and twining over her skin and his in thin ropey tendrils of softly glowing green energy. Ethereal ghostly vines of pure warm nature magic that seemed to sprout from her arms and legs and core, and now that he could see them as they looped and twisted over his arms and back, he slowly woke to the  _feel_  of them. It was an incredibly intimate experience, a distant tingling, warm and gentle, and it felt like Daisy herself.

They writhed over Daisy's chest arms and legs seeming to bind her against him and they then grew and coiled tighter and tighter about his own person. They wrapped around his shoulders and chest; warm and alive with raw energy; feeling like the essence of life itself. That tingling brightness made the hair all over his body stand on end like as static charge as they made his blood -already pounding through him- begin to sing in an odd foreign way. Was this what magic felt like? It was intoxicating.

That spectral pressure against his skin, binding but gentle -solid yet intangible- like an extension of the little mage's innermost self as it clung about him in this moment of her desperate need, contracted around him allowing the little elf to go slack as her magic did the work of holding her flush to him. And, at last, Varric was the one to find himself in the situation of being the one experiencing something new; being introduced to a pleasure unlike anything he'd thus experienced as her very soul blossomed all around him with the scent of all that was green and growing. It was beautiful and vital and fed something deep inside of him he'd not known was hungry.

Then her eyes opened and their gazes locked and there was a moment of stillness between them. They still moved, their bodies bucking and surging with Varric's wild driving need, but between  _them_  there was stillness, and it was perfect. Her soft small hand traveled up his thick neck, finger brushing over the gold in his ear, until he felt that warm slim hand cupping his heavy cheek and jaw; holding him there so that he literally  _couldn't_  break that uncomfortably powerful eye contact...

Then her lips parted and in a voice like a summer wind she issued an undeniable command. "Show me."

Her voice was soft; breathy and raw from her earlier excretions. Logically, he shouldn't have been able to hear it over the sound of his own ragged panting, and the loud smack of flesh on flesh; nevertheless, it rang in his ears and mind like the clearest clarion cry and he was helpless but to obey.

He fell over the edge hard and fast; bellowing his triumph and arching back into his final pleasure as it crashed through him like a tidal wave.

Finally spent, tired and over taxed muscles gave way and Varric collapsed onto Merrill's chest in a panting heap. It took all he had left in him to roll himself clear after only a few gasping moments in which he tried to catch his breath. Turned out neither of them was quite ready to break that contact though, for no sooner had his back hit the mattress than his arm was reaching out to gather her back to him, only to be met half way by her own searching fingers.

"Come here, Beautiful." He murmured sleepily, a tired yet extremely satisfied smile playing about his lips. Weak as a new born kitten, she rolled into his arms, scooting down the bed until she could lay her cheek upon his sweat dampened chest. She murmured something into his sternum as she did it, but Varric didn't quite catch it. "What was that Daisy?"

"I said, 'you're much prettier than Anders when you do that.'" Came the slightly louder, but still muzzy words as she snuggled deeper into his chest. Varric chuckled, not sure which was more ridiculous, her choice of words or the fact that he was absurdly pleased she thought he was 'prettier than Anders' under any circumstances.

She was asleep before he could make his own tried and sex fogged brain come up with an adequate response, her breath soft and even and sweet as it gently stirred the sweat dampened hair over his torso. Varric wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight even as he felt his own eyes droop.

He knew they should talk. That they needed to discuss what this was, where it might be going, and just what in the void they were gonna do regarding the two over protective woman in Daisy's life, 'cause Maker only knew that Hawke was going to skin him alive if she found out about this under the wrong circumstances and it didn't even bear thinking about what the Rivaini might do to him if she thought he'd taken advantage of her little 'Kitten'.

He knew all that, but with Merrill already sleeping soundly, snuggled up tight, her warm presence more soporific than any drink Varric had ever over indulged in, in a long history of over indulgence, he just couldn't bear to rouse her.

_Just drop it. Leave it 'til morning Varric._ He chided himself as his eyes drooped, leaden with sated exhaustion; demanding he relent and join the elf in sleep.  _Nothing to worry about;_ w _e'll have a nice little chat over breakfast and sort it all out then. There'll be plenty of time to deal with all the rest in the morning. Rivaini and Broody will be sleeping it off for the better part of tomorrow after what she had planned, so she won't be turning up here 'til late evening; and it's not like Hawke's gonna be kickin' down the door before noon after a night under Blondie's tender mercies._

**.:xo-DFD-ox:** **.**

"Merrill? Merrill!" Hawke's voice was uncomfortably loud in the early morning quiet of the Alienage, and Anders winced when his lover ceased knocking upon the blood-mage's door and started to really hammer at it with the pommel of one of her daggers. "Merrill, if you're in there, open the damned door!"

"Love, is it really necessary to break the door down? Or shout quite so loudly for that matter? Let's just calm down." The healer reasoned, looking nervously about at the neighboring doors and windows in the overcrowded slum, as he simultaneously tried to soothe his overly excitable lover; hoping not to set her off on shouting at  _him_... again.

His caution was wasted.

Marian whirled on him, her eyes bright and angry as she snarled at him. "Don't you tell me to be calm! If you'd just said something on the way back from the Coast she wouldn't be hiding from me in the first place!" All the blood suddenly fled her face, taking all the fight out of her with its retreat, "Maker's man-tits! I'm a horrible friend." She almost sobbed, turning back to the door and knocking hesitantly once more as she resumed her early tactic of pleading through the wood in a tone that screamed 'contrition'. "Merrill honey, I'm sorry I was such a tit yesterday. Please let me in, sweetie. Anders is sorry too!"

"Yeah see, I'm really not." Were the healer's muttered words behind her and Hawke threw him a withering look over her shoulder.

"I fail to see why you neglecting to go haring off after the witch last night, means we both must come all the way down here at this unholy hour of the morning." Anders and Hawke both turned toward the stair leading up to Lowtown with mild shock at the sound of Fenris' voice just in time to see the white haired elf trailing sullenly behind a haggard and worried looking Isabela.

"Because that is what friend's do when they've fucked up on the friend front, sweet-thing."

"That fool witch is no friend of mine."

"Yes, well she  _is_  one of mine, and you enjoy fucking me; seeing as you wish to _continue_  to do so and it was because of you that I didn't do the right thing by her, you're obliged by proxy. Hawke, Anders! Is that you? What in the name of everything are you two doing down her at this hour. Shouldn't you two be cuddling the morning away in Hightown?"

"Same as you, by the sounds of it." Anders called back as the pirate and warrior made their way over to them, "And for the record, I actually  _agree_  with the elf for once – the hour is unholy and she's not  _my_  friend. Really love, if she's that upset with us, it was her own fault for watching in the first place."

"I can't believe you knew she was watching and let me keep going, you arse."

"So it's acts of penance all round, then. What are you down for, Hawke?" Isabela asked as she sauntered over and added her own variation to the knocking at Merrill's door along with a shouted "Kitten!" that made both Fenris and Anders wince, though the healer suspected the elf's cringing had more to do with being hungover than any concern about the neighbors.

"Anders and I, may have gotten a little... carried away on out trip to the Coast yesterday... and Merrill  _might_  have seen us – only this twat saw her watching and then didn't stop me,  _or_  bother to tell me about that fact until this morning, when I mentioned that she seemed a little off on our walk back to the city. You?"

"Shit. Well that explains that mystery then. She ran into me coming out of The Rose last night." Isabela said once again pounding on the door. "Kitten, open up! I want some answers, Pet!" Then she tuned back to Hawke and Anders, "Seems you two got her all hot and bothered with your little show of public indecency."

"You're one to talk." Muttered Anders, before continuing in a more conversational volume, "And what's there so shocking about her seeing you leave The Rose? Nothing new about that, you practically live there. Though, I was under the impression you were getting your jollies elsewhere these days." He gave Fenris a sly look, "Can't keep up with her, Elf?"

"I don't appreciate the insinuation, Mage." Fenris growled. The rogues simply shared a glance and rolled their eyes at their men's baiting and posturing.

"Me coming out of the brothel, nothing new," Isabela said, but then her tone darkened on the next bit. "Kitten going  _in,_  on the other hand..."

Hawke's eyes grew round at the implication and she turned and really started hammering on the door. "Merrill!"

"Oh will you sods leave off?!" Came a shout from one of the neighboring residences making Anders flinch guiltily. "She' ain't home! She ain't  _been_ home all night, now take you ruddin' pounding and hollerin' eleswhere!"

Hawke and Isabela exchanged one terrified look then both women turned as one and darted off towards the stairs, catching hold of -and all but dragging- their respective partners in their wake.

"Love, clam down!" Anders half shouted breathlessly after being unceremoniously hauled up the stairs at high speed. "You can't search the whole of Kirkwall at a run."

"Don't have to. Just need to get to Varric." She said over her shoulder, heading toward The Hanged Man

at a pace that was just shy of jogging, forcing the others to trot to keep up.

"And the dwarf would know her whereabouts, how exactly?" Came Fenris' even drawl, the elf having flat out refused to run for the sake of a blood-mage, though he'd been forced to lengthen his stride almost comically to manage it.

"He has her followed." Hawke and Isabela said in unison.

**.:xo-DFD-ox:** **.**

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Varric cracked opened one eye and growled under his breath at the pounding at his door. It was far too early for him to be considering leaving his bed. Doubly so, with the warm weight of Daisy curled up around his chest and side. He considered ignoring it, but then that pounding came again, even louder, and this time it was accompanied by the muffled sound of someone shouting his name.

Shit. Didn't sound like whoever it was, was gonna do the polite thing and bugger off until later.

Beside him Daisy stirred, "Varric?" She murmured sleepily, her nose burrowing deeper into his chest hair, and a little frown creasing her brow.

"Go back to sleep, Sweetheart. Probably just some idiots from the merchant's guild. I'll deal with them." He extracted himself from under her and the covers which she burrowed her face into once again snoring softly, clearly still spent after their night of... enthusiastic love making. He glanced back at her as he pulled on his breeches -forgoing his shirt and his smalls- and smiled to see Daisy had kicked her legs mostly free of the bedding during the night.

He felt an interested stirring in his loins at the tantalizing sight of her sweet little ass hanging out from under the covers. Maybe if he was lucky, she'd be willing to entrain the notion of a 'round two' once he'd sent the pissheads at his door packing. He pulled the drapes to his sleep chamber firmly shut behind him, more to keep out any potential drafts that might encourage her to cover up again -and spoil the view- than out of any fear of exposing her to anyone, after all he had no intention of letting whoever it was drumming at his door in.

Again there came that thudding knock.

"Alright! Alright, keep your shirt on." He muttered, buttoning his fly but not bothering to buckle his belt seeing as he intended to be naked again in a matter of minutes. Then he began to slide the bolt back, "I hope th-" He started, but the moment door was open a crack, Varric was forced to jump back in order to save himself being bowled over by and frantic looking Hawke and an equally agitated Isabela.

Only years of careful practice kept his face from showing his alarm. If there was two people he really didn't want in his apartment right now, it was these two.

Silently he cursed his luck as he tossed a quick nervous glance in the direction of his bed chamber, making doubly sure there was no chance they might see who currently occupied it. He hadn't entirely deiced what he was gonna do about Daisy's over-protective adoptive-sisters yet, mostly because he wasn't entirely certain where this thing between him and Daisy was gonna end up; but he did know that having them find her naked in his bed, was not gonna be good for his health under  _any_  circumstances.

He needed to get them out of his suite as soon as possible. Preferably  _before_  they woke Daisy and she came skipping out here in the nude and dumped him into the bucketful of trouble that was Isabela and Hawke united in righteous anger.

"Little early, isn't it Hawke? Mind coming back when I'm awake?" He quipped, hoping she'd get the hint.

"Merrill's missing!" Hawke half-shouted, her words making a nervous sweat spring up on the dwarf's brow.

_Right._ _Well._ _That was fucking fast._  He thought rubbing his suddenly damp palms against the fabric of his breeches, his mind spinning as he tried to figure the best way to bullshit his way out of this without showing his hand. Damn it all. He was thoroughly regretting not having had that chat with Daisy about this last night; as things stood he wasn't sure which way he should jump. "No need to shout, Hawke; last I checked, I wasn't deaf." He quipped instead, eyes darting toward the curtains, not only trying to buy time, but genuinely attempting to see her lower the volume, "Mind keeping you voice down?" He really didn't want Daisy walking into this mess, that elf had a talent for taking an awkward or bad situation and making it ten times worse in ten words or less.

"Varric! Did you not hear what I said? She's  _missing_! She never went home last night and no one has seen her since Isabela caught her at The Rose. The  _Rose_  Varric!" Instead of quieting down, Hawke's voice was steadily  _gaining_  volume as she paced. Varric was suddenly a lot more concerned with calming the woman down; at this rate there was no way she wasn't going to wake the elf in his bed.

"Okay Hawke. It's all fine. Daisy's fine." He said, then hastily added, "I'm sure." When it came out sounding perhaps, a bit too confident, and Isabela cocked a suspicious eyebrow in his direction. Eager to see them gone, he placed a hand on both of their backs and turned them toward his door; herding them in the direction of the hall, only to see that his rooms had been further invaded by an exasperated looking Fenris and a grinning Anders.

_Shit! When did they get here? Oh, I do not like th_ _at shit-eating_ _look on Blondie's face._

"You know where she is? Do you know why she never went home last night?" Hawke asked sounding guilty and worried in equal measures.

"I – in a manner of speaking, yes. Now look, ladies, now's not the best time. How about you all go wait for me in the common room and I'll just finish getting dressed and we can-"

"Just go put your shirt on, Varric, we can wait here." Isabela said, ducking his hand and perching on his table. Then she let her eyes drift down to his breeches, a knowing smirk tugging at her lips "Smalls too, if you'd be more comfortable, promise we won't peek." Irritatingly enough, Varric felt his cheeks warm a bit at having been caught out; trust the crazy pirate to recognize when a man had forgone his underclothes.

"Rivaini, will you just get out? You lot are too loud and I don't want-" He bit it off before the word could actually slip out but he'd already gone too far, as Anders suddenly burst out laughing.

"I knew it! You sly old dog! You've got a woman in here, don't you?" He crowed. This news seemed to distract the two women perfectly from their mutual worry as they both suddenly stilled with the light of pure devilry catching fire in their eyes.

"Thanks Blondie!" He spat at the apostate, "Not that it's any business of yours, but yes. Now if you don't mind, you lot, clear out!" He finished trying to get the Champion moving again, but Hawke planted her feet and looked down at him with wide disbelieving eyes her eyes racking over his bare shoulder and surely seeing some evidence of the scratches Daisy had left on them now that she was looking. Then a grin of the purest mischief Varric had ever seen split her previously worried face as behind her the pirate mirrored the expression perfectly.

Half a moment too late, he realized what was gonna happen and made a lunge to try and get between Isabela and the drapes. But Hawke spun and grabbed him, pulling him up short, and allowing Isabela to whip open the heavy hangings. Varric cringed as he saw her grow perfectly still before her eyes got hugely round.

"Oh,  _Varric_..." She tsked quietly shaking her head in a pitying gesture, one that promised Varric no end of trouble.

"Now Rivaini, it's not what you think-" He reasoned, hands held up before him protectively, behind him Hawke side stepped so that she could see into his sleep-chamber passed Isabela's shoulder. He broke free of her slack hold, just as the woman's eyes lite upon her friend's naked rear end on his bed.

"Merrill?!" Naturally that was the moment Daisy chose to wake up.

"Hawke?" The little elf asked with a yawn and a stretch, sitting up on his bed. The movement saw the covers fall from her upper half, revealing the speckled array of love bites and the rough red abrasions Varric's stubble had left all over her. To the experienced eye -Isabela's, for instance- the marks that covered Daisy's pale skin were easier to read than a book; a map of Varric attentions drawn in a clean hand for the pirates' sharp eyed perusal. "It's awful early." Daisy went on, swinging her legs from the bed with and total lack of modesty and exposing even more evidence of Varric's enthusiastic attention to the disapproving gaze of her surrogate sisters. "Were we supposed to be going somewhere today?"

The Champion ignored the elf's question turning bright eyes on Varric where he was already backing away.

"Whatever are we gonna do with him, I wonder?" Came Isabela's voice as she walked up on his right flanking him as both women began to advance on him, with a clearly menacing air.

"Definitely something wicked, Isa." Came Hawke's too innocent sounding reply, that particular tone that let the dwarf know he was  _really_  in for it.

"Easy now. Hawke. Rivaini. Let's be reasonable here." He said, forcing a laugh and aiming to foster an air of conspiratorial amicability between himself and the other two rogues, as he continued slowly backing away, "Daisy and I are both adults, now. Nothing wrong with us blowing off some steam and having a bit of fun. I swear it was all on the up and up. I didn't get her drunk or anything- in fact, it was all her idea!" Still the women advanced, Varric glanced behind them toward their men, pleading with his eyes, but the elf was smirking so hard at his predicament it was almost a lopsided grin, and Blondie had his hand in front of his mouth and he was clearly trying -and failing- to contain his laughter, so no rescue from that quarter either.

"We could always shave off that rug on his chest." Hawke said drawing one of her daggers so that it caught the light, and making Varric visibly pale, a hand rushing to protect his precious chest hair.

Varric felt his back bump into his desk and knew he'd run out room, and the women were now closing the gap "Com'on now! We're all friends here, right? Hawke -don't be like that! Look, I took really good care of her!" Behind the two human's he could just make out Merrill, where she's walked to the entrance of his bedroom, finally covering up somewhat, having wrapped herself in his sheet, which hid some of the evidence at least... "Isn't that right, Sweetheart?" Varric called to the elf hoping she might rally to his defense.

It was the wrong play.

"Oh it was lovely Isabela just like you said! And Varric is a very good teacher; I learned so many new things. OH! Hawke you'd never guess! Did you know that Varric is ticklish?" She chirped excitedly.

Varric's eyes grew round with dread as the two rogue's exchanged a look.

"That'll work, don't you think, Hawke?" Said Isabela.

"Perfectly, Isa."

And Varric made a break for it, bowling passed the chortling and gasping men -who'd all but collapsed with laughter at his doorway- leaping down the stairs two at a time and running, shirtless, barefoot, and holding up his britches, into the streets of Lowtown with the other two rogues hot on his heels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Closing A/N: Viola! She's all done. Hope it was as an enjoyable read for you as it was to conceive and write for me. And whether it was or wasn't I'd love to hear your thoughts on it! An extra big thank you to[Murtl85](http://archiveofourown.org/users/MRTL85/pseuds/MRTL85)! For the best line in the history of lines. "slip of the thumb." HA! As well as for betaing this along with my other darling Betas: Tuon & [Enchant](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Enchant).
> 
> PSA: Remember darlings the BEST sex is the /Safe/ kind. Be sure to communicate your wants and desires to your partner and be sure you listen to them in return - that will always make things better (and if they're NOT listening to you, pack up and LEAVE – you don't need that garbage). If it's your first time make sure your partner is willing -not only to listen to you- but to go slow and make sure you're comfortable every step of the way; if they're not willing to do that for you then they don't deserve you're virginity (this applies to EVERYONE, male OR female, gay OR straight, and everything in between). And for the love of all that is holy use a condom! In Thedas STDs and Unwanted Pregnancy might not be a thing but here it IS, and those are some pretty big consequences to deal with for the REST OF YOUR LIFE because you shrugged it off and said 'it won't happen to me this time'.
> 
> Personal Announcement: For those of you who are following or subscribed to me... please be aware that my posting of new fics will be decidedly slower after this. I have just been confirmed pregnant with our second child (all the research sex we had for this fic will do that apparently) and seeing as my first pregnancy was not a smooth one, it's been decided that I need to keep my stress levels as low as possible for this one. As a result I will not be posting any new stories until they are 100% completed. That doesn't mean I'm going on hiatus per-say... just that I'm taking it slow and easy and not allowing my NEED to feed you all the next chapter of any ongoing works get my hormones any further out of whack.
> 
> Drop me a comment! As always, I'm still eager to hear form Any and Every One!

**Author's Note:**

> BABY UPDATE (for those who care): So my little one was born via C-section mid-afternoon on Nov the 8th after he kick-started my labour early morning on Nov 7th. I was really hoping this time around for a natural birth, but after THIRTY-TWO FREAKING HOURS OF ZERO PROGRESS(!) I gave in and let them take him out. Fortunately the experience this time around was much better than the last and the spinal actually took So I couldn't actually FEEL them cutting me open, thus recovery and so-forth have been much better.


End file.
